To say that a historical event is important can mean one of two things: that an event may be impo... more To say that a historical event is important can mean one of two things: that an event may be important to us as later observers or that the event might have been important to people who lived at the time. Modern observers with the benefit of hindsight often think an event was important largely because we know its role in later chains of events: for example, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1 9 14 might seem an isolated example of Balkan violence were it not for its role in starting World War I. Similarly, the Wannsee meeting in ...
In 1834 England adopted a set of reforms to its poor-relief system that sought to overturn a syst... more In 1834 England adopted a set of reforms to its poor-relief system that sought to overturn a system dating back to the time of Elizabeth I. Local parishes under the old system granted outdoor relief to a wide class of persons, including able-bodied workers, and did so in many forms, including in-kind grants, cash, and several forms of wage supplements. The 1834 reforms, collectively referred to as the New Poor Law, established large administrative units beholden to a central authority and attempted to abolish outdoor relief for the able-bodied. ...
In most western societies, marital fertility began to decline in the nineteenth century. But in I... more In most western societies, marital fertility began to decline in the nineteenth century. But in Ireland, fertility in marriage remained stubbornly high into the twentieth century. Explanations of Ireland's late entry to the fertility transition focus on the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Irish society. These arguments are often backed up by claims that the Irish outside of Ireland behaved the same way. This paper investigates these claims by examining the marital fertility of Irish Americans in 1910 and produces three main findings. First, the Irish in America had smaller families than both the rural and urban Irish and their fertility patterns show clear evidence of fertility control. Second, despite the evidence of control, Irish-Americans continued to have large families, much larger, in fact, than the U.S. native-born population. The fertility differential between these populations was not due to differences in other population characteristics. Rather it was due t...
Yale: Economic Growth Center Discussion Papers, 2001
Ireland's relatively late and feeble fertility transition remains poorly-understood. The lead... more Ireland's relatively late and feeble fertility transition remains poorly-understood. The leading explanations stress the role of Catholicism and a conservative social ethos. This paper reports the first results from a project that uses new samples from the 1911 census of Ireland to study fertility in Dublin and Belfast. Our larger project aims to use the extensive literature on the fertility transition elsewhere in Europe to refine and test leading hypotheses in their Irish context. The present paper uses a sample from the Dublin suburb of Pembroke to take a first look at the questions, data, and methods. This sample is much larger than those used in previous studies of Irish fertility, and is the first from an urban area. We find considerable support for the role of religion, networks, and other factors stressed in the literature on the fertility transition, but the data also show a role for the social-class effects downplayed in recent discussions.
The past 20 years have witnessed a thorough reassessment of the basic features of nineteenth-cent... more The past 20 years have witnessed a thorough reassessment of the basic features of nineteenth-century Ireland’s economic experience. Much of this reassessment was focused on the Great Famine of the 1840s, but the post-Famine period (which means, for the purposes of this essay, from the Great Famine to the Great War) has undergone its own quieter but no less complete reassessment. The two books under review here convey the flavor of this new research.
The United Kingdom's Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 instituted means-teste... more The United Kingdom's Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 instituted means-tested, non-contributory pensions for men and women aged 70 or over. The pension and the lack of civil registration of births before 1864 caused many Irish to exaggerate their ages in the Census of 1911. In this paper a linked sample from the manuscript censuses of 1901 and 1911 is used to estimate the magnitude and determinants of this age misrepresentation. Our results show three types of age discrepancies: those associated with a significant reduction in ...
John Hajnal's influential neo-Malthusian model of nuptiality in historical northwestern Europ... more John Hajnal's influential neo-Malthusian model of nuptiality in historical northwestern Europe makes economic conditions the regulator of the age at marriage and the proportion marrying, and so is in principle an economic theory of marriage. Yet because it over-simplifies the economic consequences of marriage for young adults, Hajnal's model cannot account for important differences in the incentive to marry implied by different economic and social environments. An alternative, non-Malthusian view of Ireland's nuptiality history suggests the need to integrate decisions by young adults about marriage into a broader appreciation of the consequences of marriage and permanent celibacy in concrete economic and social environments.
Germany introduced compulsory industrial accident insurance in 1884. The accident-insurance syste... more Germany introduced compulsory industrial accident insurance in 1884. The accident-insurance system compensated injured workers and survivors for losses, but initially failed to limit the growth of accident rates. We trace this failure to the 1884 law's faulty incentives and to an initial unwillingness to use the tools built into the law. The government regulator increasingly stressed rules that forced firms to adopt specific safety-enhancing innovations and practices. Econometric analysis shows that more consistent use of the rules and the limited incentives available under the law would have reduced industrial accidents earlier and more extensively.
Studies of Spanish cooperatives locate their spread from the Law on Agrarian Syndicates of 1906. ... more Studies of Spanish cooperatives locate their spread from the Law on Agrarian Syndicates of 1906. But the first legislative appearance of cooperatives is an 1869 measure that permitted general incorporation for lending companies. The 1931 general law on cooperatives, which was the first measure permitting the formation of cooperatives in any activity, reflects the gradual disappearance of the cooperative’s mercantile characteristics. In this paper we trace the Spanish cooperative’s legal roots in business law, and its connections to broader questions of the freedom of association, the formation of joint-stock enterprises, and the liability of investors in business and cooperative entities.
The 1990 Federal Census of the United States did not ask married individuals whether they had pre... more The 1990 Federal Census of the United States did not ask married individuals whether they had previously been married. Several researchers have used own-child checks to substitute for direct information on remarriage in selecting couples for marital fertility analysis from the Public Use Sample of the U.S. Federal Census of 1900. This note compares the results of such checks to direct information on remarriage in the Public Use Sample of the U.S. Census of 1910. The 1910 census did ask married persons whether they had been married previously. Comparison of the direct and indirect information on remarriage shows that the checks detect fewer than two-thirds of wives who report they are remarried. On the other hand parity distributions for women who say they are remarried but are not identified as such by the own-child checks are very similar to those for the population of remarried women as a whole. The own-child checks are a poor method for the study of remarriage per se but the checks perform remarkably well as part of fertility analysis of the 1900 Public Use Sample. (EXCERPT)
To say that a historical event is important can mean one of two things: that an event may be impo... more To say that a historical event is important can mean one of two things: that an event may be important to us as later observers or that the event might have been important to people who lived at the time. Modern observers with the benefit of hindsight often think an event was important largely because we know its role in later chains of events: for example, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1 9 14 might seem an isolated example of Balkan violence were it not for its role in starting World War I. Similarly, the Wannsee meeting in ...
In 1834 England adopted a set of reforms to its poor-relief system that sought to overturn a syst... more In 1834 England adopted a set of reforms to its poor-relief system that sought to overturn a system dating back to the time of Elizabeth I. Local parishes under the old system granted outdoor relief to a wide class of persons, including able-bodied workers, and did so in many forms, including in-kind grants, cash, and several forms of wage supplements. The 1834 reforms, collectively referred to as the New Poor Law, established large administrative units beholden to a central authority and attempted to abolish outdoor relief for the able-bodied. ...
In most western societies, marital fertility began to decline in the nineteenth century. But in I... more In most western societies, marital fertility began to decline in the nineteenth century. But in Ireland, fertility in marriage remained stubbornly high into the twentieth century. Explanations of Ireland's late entry to the fertility transition focus on the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Irish society. These arguments are often backed up by claims that the Irish outside of Ireland behaved the same way. This paper investigates these claims by examining the marital fertility of Irish Americans in 1910 and produces three main findings. First, the Irish in America had smaller families than both the rural and urban Irish and their fertility patterns show clear evidence of fertility control. Second, despite the evidence of control, Irish-Americans continued to have large families, much larger, in fact, than the U.S. native-born population. The fertility differential between these populations was not due to differences in other population characteristics. Rather it was due t...
Yale: Economic Growth Center Discussion Papers, 2001
Ireland's relatively late and feeble fertility transition remains poorly-understood. The lead... more Ireland's relatively late and feeble fertility transition remains poorly-understood. The leading explanations stress the role of Catholicism and a conservative social ethos. This paper reports the first results from a project that uses new samples from the 1911 census of Ireland to study fertility in Dublin and Belfast. Our larger project aims to use the extensive literature on the fertility transition elsewhere in Europe to refine and test leading hypotheses in their Irish context. The present paper uses a sample from the Dublin suburb of Pembroke to take a first look at the questions, data, and methods. This sample is much larger than those used in previous studies of Irish fertility, and is the first from an urban area. We find considerable support for the role of religion, networks, and other factors stressed in the literature on the fertility transition, but the data also show a role for the social-class effects downplayed in recent discussions.
The past 20 years have witnessed a thorough reassessment of the basic features of nineteenth-cent... more The past 20 years have witnessed a thorough reassessment of the basic features of nineteenth-century Ireland’s economic experience. Much of this reassessment was focused on the Great Famine of the 1840s, but the post-Famine period (which means, for the purposes of this essay, from the Great Famine to the Great War) has undergone its own quieter but no less complete reassessment. The two books under review here convey the flavor of this new research.
The United Kingdom's Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 instituted means-teste... more The United Kingdom's Old Age Pensions Act of 1908 instituted means-tested, non-contributory pensions for men and women aged 70 or over. The pension and the lack of civil registration of births before 1864 caused many Irish to exaggerate their ages in the Census of 1911. In this paper a linked sample from the manuscript censuses of 1901 and 1911 is used to estimate the magnitude and determinants of this age misrepresentation. Our results show three types of age discrepancies: those associated with a significant reduction in ...
John Hajnal's influential neo-Malthusian model of nuptiality in historical northwestern Europ... more John Hajnal's influential neo-Malthusian model of nuptiality in historical northwestern Europe makes economic conditions the regulator of the age at marriage and the proportion marrying, and so is in principle an economic theory of marriage. Yet because it over-simplifies the economic consequences of marriage for young adults, Hajnal's model cannot account for important differences in the incentive to marry implied by different economic and social environments. An alternative, non-Malthusian view of Ireland's nuptiality history suggests the need to integrate decisions by young adults about marriage into a broader appreciation of the consequences of marriage and permanent celibacy in concrete economic and social environments.
Germany introduced compulsory industrial accident insurance in 1884. The accident-insurance syste... more Germany introduced compulsory industrial accident insurance in 1884. The accident-insurance system compensated injured workers and survivors for losses, but initially failed to limit the growth of accident rates. We trace this failure to the 1884 law's faulty incentives and to an initial unwillingness to use the tools built into the law. The government regulator increasingly stressed rules that forced firms to adopt specific safety-enhancing innovations and practices. Econometric analysis shows that more consistent use of the rules and the limited incentives available under the law would have reduced industrial accidents earlier and more extensively.
Studies of Spanish cooperatives locate their spread from the Law on Agrarian Syndicates of 1906. ... more Studies of Spanish cooperatives locate their spread from the Law on Agrarian Syndicates of 1906. But the first legislative appearance of cooperatives is an 1869 measure that permitted general incorporation for lending companies. The 1931 general law on cooperatives, which was the first measure permitting the formation of cooperatives in any activity, reflects the gradual disappearance of the cooperative’s mercantile characteristics. In this paper we trace the Spanish cooperative’s legal roots in business law, and its connections to broader questions of the freedom of association, the formation of joint-stock enterprises, and the liability of investors in business and cooperative entities.
The 1990 Federal Census of the United States did not ask married individuals whether they had pre... more The 1990 Federal Census of the United States did not ask married individuals whether they had previously been married. Several researchers have used own-child checks to substitute for direct information on remarriage in selecting couples for marital fertility analysis from the Public Use Sample of the U.S. Federal Census of 1900. This note compares the results of such checks to direct information on remarriage in the Public Use Sample of the U.S. Census of 1910. The 1910 census did ask married persons whether they had been married previously. Comparison of the direct and indirect information on remarriage shows that the checks detect fewer than two-thirds of wives who report they are remarried. On the other hand parity distributions for women who say they are remarried but are not identified as such by the own-child checks are very similar to those for the population of remarried women as a whole. The own-child checks are a poor method for the study of remarriage per se but the checks perform remarkably well as part of fertility analysis of the 1900 Public Use Sample. (EXCERPT)
The most common business enterprise form in Germany today is the Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Ha... more The most common business enterprise form in Germany today is the Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH). The GmbH offers entrepreneurs the partnership’s flexibility combined with limited liability, capital lock-in, and other traits associated with corporations. Earlier enterprise forms such as the partnership and corporation were codified versions of longstanding practice; the GmbH, on the other hand, was the lawgiver’s creation. Authorized in 1892, the GmbH appeared during a period of ferment in German enterprise law and was an early example of the “Private Limited-Liability Company” (PLLC) prevalent in many economies today. This paper traces the debates and the legislative process that led to the GmbH’s introduction. The new form reflected challenges created by the corporation reform of 1884, problems in German colonial companies, and the view that British company law had put German firms at a competitive disadvantage. Many new enterprises adopted the GmbH, but significant sections of the financial and legal community harbored strong reservations about this legal innovation.
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