What causes hot markets for equity IPOs? An analysis of initial public offerings in the Netherlands, 1876–2015
Abe de Jong and Wilco Legierse
Pages 208–233
https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heab011
This paper explains fluctuations in the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) between 1876 and 2015 in the Netherlands. We test an econometric model and find that the number of IPOs is strongly related to the economic growth and the size of the stock exchange. We also find that IPOs are timed to coincide with favorable market conditions. Our model explains almost 50 percent of the fluctuations and most of the hot markets. To further understand IPO waves, we conduct a descriptive analysis, which yields two additional causes for hot markets, i.e., high capital needs and investors’ expectations for specific industries.
Reconstructing income inequality in a colonial cash crop economy: five social tables for Uganda, 1925–1965
Michiel de Haas
Pages 255–283
https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heab010
This study contributes to an expanding literature on historical African inequality, presenting five social tables and income inequality estimates for Uganda between 1925 and 1965. I find that income inequality was mostly stable and overall low compared to other African colonies. Decomposition reveals important underlying fault lines and shifts. Income gaps between the African majority and a tiny Asian and European income elite accounted for a large share of overall inequality. Over time, inequality among Africans increased. Income from self-provisioning was a major equalizer in Uganda’s economy, which was characterized by land abundance and widespread smallholder cultivation of labor-intensive export crops.
Elite violence and elite numeracy in Africa from 1400 CE to 1950 CE
Joerg Baten and Kleoniki Alexopoulou
Pages 155–184
https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heab013
How can we trace early African development? The share of rulers’ known birth year has been identified as an indicator of elite numeracy in African regions since 1400, and the share of murdered rulers allows us to gain insights into interpersonal violence behaviour of African elites. From this emerges a dynamic picture of quantitative African history: the absence of elite violence and high elite numeracy developed jointly in sub-Saharan Africa. Some African regions, such as today’s Ethiopia and Angola, took the lead in early development but also experienced severe declines. Development in Africa was, on average, later than in Northwestern Europe.
The wild card: colonial paper money in French North America, 1685 to 1719
Bryan P Cutsinger and others
Pages 185–207
https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heab014
We use the first French experiment with playing card money in its colony of Quebec between 1685 and 1719 to illustrate the link between legal tender restrictions and the price level. Initially, the quantity of playing card money and the government’s poor fiscal condition appears to have had little effect on prices. After 1705, however, the playing card money became inflationary. We argue that this was caused by the government’s increased enforcement of the legal tender laws and the adoption of a redemption plan intended to remove the notes from circulation.
To the manor born: a new microlevel wage database for eighteenth-century Denmark
Peter Sandholt Jensen and others
Pages 302–310
https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heab015
We document and make available to the scholarly community a uniquely detailed database of 20,680 observations of wages for men, women, and children and 30,000 observations of prices from eighteenth-century rural Denmark. These microlevel data were originally collected by the Danish Price History Project but have not previously been released. To illustrate the usefulness of such data, we discuss possible applications.
Economic growth on the periphery: estimates of GDP per capita of the Congress Kingdom of Poland (for years 1870–1912)
Piotr Koryś and Maciej Tymiński
Pages 284–301
https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heab016
This paper presents the estimates of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Congress Kingdom of Poland for the period 1870–1912. The authors used bottom-up methodology and calculated sectoral added values using historical economic, social, and demographic data. The presented results offer first ever insight into the structure of sectoral added values in the Congress Kingdom of Poland during the period of first globalization and first reliable estimates of GDP of the Congress Kingdom of Poland. All results are presented in Geary–Khamis dollars PPP1990 and are compatible with Maddison dataset.
Death, sex, and fertility: female infanticide in rural Spain, 1750–1950
Francisco J Beltrán Tapia and Francisco J Marco-Gracia
Pages 234–254
https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heab023
Relying on longitudinal micro data from rural Spain between 1750 and 1950, this article evidences that families mortally neglected a significant fraction of their female babies. Firstly, baptism records exhibited exceptionally high sex ratios at birth until the late nineteenth century. Secondly, having no previous male siblings increased the probability of male baptisms. Likewise, this same feature, together with the number of siblings alive, also increased female mortality during the first day of life. These findings are concentrated at higher parities and among landless and semi-landless families. Lastly, under-registration cannot explain these patterns affecting female mortality shortly after birth.
