Suchergebnisse

The unprecedented importance of finance in our societies, as well as its central role in provoking economic crises, has generated an enormous interest in understanding the historical origins and evolution of modern financial systems. Today the U.S. economy is seen as an archetype of a capitalist system in which securities markets play a central role. Moreover, these markets have had a high profile in some of the most dramatic moments in U.S. history, often in the context of crises. Dividends of Development: Securities Markets in the History of U.S. Capitalism, 1865-1922, explains how U.S. securities markets became central to the institutional fabric of U.S. capitalism. After the Civil War, these markets had a narrowly circumscribed relationship to the country's real economy, being largely dominated by railroad securities. Moreover, their role in the U.S. financial system was of limited significance given the relatively modest resources that financial institutions committed to investment in, and lending on, corporate securities. That situation was to undergo fundamental change from the Civil War through the end of World War 1 but the development of U.S. securities markets did not occur as a result of a smooth, or even, linear process. 0Instead, the book shows that the transformation of U.S. securities markets occurred through a process that was volatile and time-consuming, unscripted by powerful actors, and driven, above all else, by the dramatic but unstable character of the nation's economic development. These claims about the trajectory, the operation, and the underlying dynamics of the development of U.S. securities markets are brought together in a novel synthesis that portrays the historical evolution of securities markets in the United States as the "dividends" of the country's distinctive trajectory of economic development

AbstractUnprecedented liquidity injections by central bankers have gained legitimacy in recent years to stave off economic crisis and enjoy strong support from prominent economists and economic historians. Such radical action by central bankers is underpinned by a remarkable agreement on a specific interpretation of the Great Depression of the 1930s in the US, an interpretation proposed by Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz in A monetary history of the United States (1963). This article explores the origins, the limits, and the influence of A monetary history's interpretation of the Great Depression for the insights it offers on theory and history in the study of economic life. The book was inspired by Wesley Clair Mitchell's mobilization of historical research to insist on the inherent instability of capitalism. Friedman and Schwartz exploited the heretical potential of historical research to dismiss any claim that the crisis reflected a systemic dysfunction of the US economy. Now that their interpretation has become our orthodoxy, this article shows how we can develop the fertile link between history and heresy to open up new lines of research on the causes of the greatest crisis in the history of capitalism.

The enthusiasm ofBritish portfolio investors forUSindustry in the late 1880s has been seen as evidence of the liberalism of theLondonStockExchange and the conservatism of theNewYorkStockExchange.Based on a study ofAnglo‐American brewing issues on theLondon market between 1888 and 1892, in this article it is argued that such an interpretation cannot be sustained.For these issues, securing access to theLondon market proved more demanding than accounts of its liberalism would lead us to expect: in fact,Anglo‐American brewing companies submitted to strictures fromLondon that were more constraining than those of theNewYork market.Promoters acceptedLondon's constraints to take advantage of the high valuations assigned toAnglo‐American brewing securities there, which reflected the city's success in building demand based on financial machinery that did not exist inNewYork.That machinery included underwriting syndicates, accounting standards, and theLondonStockExchange's listing rules, although, from this perspective, it was the rigour of the exchange's rules that was important.Still, vetting securities for quotation was not the same as for investment, as the disappointing performance of theAnglo‐American brewing securities soon revealed.

In this study of lending in the emergence of a modern steel industry in the United States, I analyze the evolving interaction between borrowers and lenders in historical context. I show how "relationship lending" (that is, credit allocation in which personal contacts play a major role) can go wrong, despite good intentions at the outset, and that institutional conditions exert an important influence on how lenders and borrowers negotiate conflicts. Particularly important in the case of Moses Taylor and Joliet Iron & Steel Company were the uncertain jurisdictions and political maneuvering that stemmed from structural peculiarities of the U.S. legal system, peculiarities that belie claims of its efficacy for protecting creditor interests. Although this failure of relationship lending might seem to imply negative consequences for economic development, I show that, at least in this case, the opposite interpretation is more compelling. MARY O'SULLIVAN is professor of economic history and director of the Department of Economic History at the University of Geneva. She is currently working on a research project on the history of U.S. capital markets from the Civil War until World War I.

Based on an analysis of the leading trading markets for stock in the United States, I document the dramatic expansion that took place in the scale and scope of the country's stock market from the mid-1880s to the early 1930s. My analysis suggests that a broadbased stock market was a long way from being established even by the early teens. It took the impetus provided by World War I, plus the enthusiasm of the 1920s, to bring such a market into existence. I consider the capacity of today's fashionable theories, which link the development of stock markets to improvements in minority shareholder protection, to explain the growth of the U.S. stock market, and find that they cannot account for the historical patterns that I identify. However, I suggest that there are other arguments that are worthy of further consideration. First, there were factors, besides minority shareholder rights, that led to changes in the demand for corporate stocks during this period, especially an increase in the demand for stocks by institutional investors, notably banks and insurance companies, as well as the emergence of a retail market for stocks after World War I. Second, there were also important developments in the supply of corporate stocks after the War, including the issuance of stock to fund the expansion of young firms, but especially to facilitate mergers and acquisitions by established firms, which seem to have played an important role in driving the expansion of the U.S. stock market.

Drawing on the cases of the US & Germany, it is argued that considerable change has indeed occurred in national governance systems. These changes cannot be understood, however, as the outcome of a market-driven, efficiency-enhancing process. Rather, realignments in corporate governance reflect the growing economic & political power of those who have accumulated financial assets, a trend that is highly dependent on the extent of population aging & the social arrangements for pension provision in domestic economies. 33 References. Adapted from the source document.

The objective behind this dissertation is to increase academic understanding of the operation of Irish representative democracy, since there has been no similar systematic and contemporary study of Dail Eireann or its members. At a broader level, it contributes to the political science discipline by applying theories and models generated elsewhere to a political system unique in its institutional and cultural composition. It also differs from existing research in applying a broader conception of representation, viewing it not merely as one dimension of a representative?s role, but rather as a defining feature underpinning all elements of an MP?s functions and activities. I use Irish TDs as my unit of analysis and draw upon theories of representation, role theory and the rational actor perspective. Based on data from face-to face interviews conducted with TDs as well as a survey, census data and material from the parliamentary record, I investigate the relationship between institutional rules and constraints, and the attitudes and behaviour of representatives. ; TARA (Trinity?s Access to Research Archive) has a robust takedown policy. Please contact us if you have any concerns: rssadmin@tcd.ie