Military Burden and the Democracy Puzzle

The Kantian thought had advanced the idea that wars and military expenditure should decrease as long as democracy widens across the World. Historical evidence seems to invalidate this wisdom because frequency of wars is ncreasing over time and a large amount of public resources is still being committed to military spending. This paper contributes to explain this point by considering the effect of polity regimes on the military spending during the period 1880-1938. Indeed, before World War I the more democratic countries spent more for military purposes than autocracies whereas the reverse is true after 1920. This puzzling behaviour is therefore explained by the inconsistent timing between the ability of a state to drain resources by taxation (state fiscal capacity) and the political participation. Thus, the Kantian idea of a democratic and peaceful world seems to hold only for full democracy with large political participation.Military spending, polity regimes, war, political participation

Money and Overseas Investments in the Relative Fall of British Empire

Investigating on the reasons of British overseas investments (1850-1913) we analyze two different approaches on data and we conclude that they are not different from a stochastic view. Inquiring on ‘push’ approach, we find that exists a negative correlation between GDP and overseas investments where the former cause the latter. The link between monetary events and colonialism highlights India’s role as a reserve of bullions. In this way, British capital was able to complete its natural cycle, draining money for future foreign investments. This improve the theory by introducing the monetary element in ‘push’ and ‘pull’ hypothesis as well.overseas Investments, Bimetallism, Gold Standard

Economic growth before the Industrial Revolution: Rural production and guilds in the European Little Divergence

This paper explains how England became a high-income economy from the 15th to 18th centuries. The appropriate level of natural land suitability in the northern region of England before the Industrial Revolution was pivotal in weakening guilds’ power and the diffusion of rural manufacturing. Unlike other European countries, those elements turned into a more efficient allocation of capital between cities and the rural areas and a more efficient shift of labor time from agriculture to manufacturing in the countryside, resulting in a higher income per capita by 1750

Italy and the Little Divergence in Wages and Prices: New Data, New Results

We present new wage indices for skilled and unskilled construction workers in Italy. Our data avoid multiple issues pestering earlier wages, making our new indices the first consistent ones for early-modern Italy. Our improved wages, obtained from the St. Peter's Church in Rome, consolidate the view that urban Italy began a prolonged downturn during the seventeenth century. They also offer sustenance to the idea that epidemics instigated the decline. Comparison with new construction wages for London shows that Roman workers outearned their early-modern English counterparts. This suggests that high wages alone were not enough to trigger industrialization

Military Burden and the Democracy Puzzle

The Kantian thought had advanced the idea that wars and military expenditure should decrease as long as democracy widens across the World. Historical evidence seems to invalidate this wisdom because frequency of wars is ncreasing over time and a large amount of public resources is still being committed to military spending. This paper contributes to explain this point by considering the effect of polity regimes on the military spending during the period 1880-1938. Indeed, before World War I the more democratic countries spent more for military purposes than autocracies whereas the reverse is true after 1920. This puzzling behaviour is therefore explained by the inconsistent timing between the ability of a state to drain resources by taxation (state fiscal capacity) and the political participation. Thus, the Kantian idea of a democratic and peaceful world seems to hold only for full democracy with large political participation

Long Run Loans and Industrial Policy in Italy in the 1960s

In the II postwar phase of intensive growth, Italian policy makers, controlling banking system, used credit deepening as the leading instrument for policy targets: the industrialization of the country and reduction of regional disparities. This work presents a reconstruction of territorial long run loans to the manufacturing industries, outlining some aspects of the Italian development path summarized by a strategy of industrialization which was different across areas and branches. Moreover, it suggests a positive effect of credit deepening on product per worker in a cross section time series analysis, looking at eleven branches of manufacturing industries in the two Italian macro-regions: the Centre-North and the Mezzogiorno

Military Burden and the Democracy Puzzle

The Kantian thought had advanced the idea that wars and military expenditure should decrease as long as democracy widens across the World. Historical evidence seems to invalidate this wisdom because frequency of wars is ncreasing over time and a large amount of public resources is still being committed to military spending. This paper contributes to explain this point by considering the effect of polity regimes on the military spending during the period 1880-1938. Indeed, before World War I the more democratic countries spent more for military purposes than autocracies whereas the reverse is true after 1920. This puzzling behaviour is therefore explained by the inconsistent timing between the ability of a state to drain resources by taxation (state fiscal capacity) and the political participation. Thus, the Kantian idea of a democratic and peaceful world seems to hold only for full democracy with large political participation

Money and Overseas Investments in the Relative Fall of British Empire

Investigating on the reasons of British overseas investments (1850-1913) we analyze two different approaches on data and we conclude that they are not different from a stochastic view. Inquiring on ‘push’ approach, we find that exists a negative correlation between GDP and overseas investments where the former cause the latter. The link between monetary events and colonialism highlights India’s role as a reserve of bullions. In this way, British capital was able to complete its natural cycle, draining money for future foreign investments. This improve the theory by introducing the monetary element in ‘push’ and ‘pull’ hypothesis as well

Money and Overseas Investments in the Relative Fall of British Empire

Investigating on the reasons of British overseas investments (1850-1913) we analyze two different approaches on data and we conclude that they are not different from a stochastic view. Inquiring on ‘push’ approach, we find that exists a negative correlation between GDP and overseas investments where the former cause the latter. The link between monetary events and colonialism highlights India’s role as a reserve of bullions. In this way, British capital was able to complete its natural cycle, draining money for future foreign investments. This improve the theory by introducing the monetary element in ‘push’ and ‘pull’ hypothesis as well

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Many clinical trials have investigated the role of ICIs in PM, with contrasting results. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials testing single-agent anti-Programmed Death -1 (PD-1)/Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1), anti-Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Antigen 4 (CTLA-4) or combined treatment in PM patients, analyzing response and survival rate as well as safety data. We selected 17 studies including 2328 patients. Both OS and PFS rates were significantly higher with combined ICI treatments than with single agent anti-PD-1/PD-L1 (p < 0.001 and p = 0.006, respectively) or anti CTLA-4 (p < 0.001) treatments. ORR and DCR for all ICI treatments were 20% (95% CI 13–27%) and 56% (95% CI 45–67%), respectively, and they did not significantly differ between combined and single agent treatments (p = 0.088 and p = 0.058, respectively). The 12-month OS and 6-month PFS rates did not differ significantly (p = 0.0545 and p = 0.1464, respectively) among pre-treated or untreated patients. Combined ICI treatments had a significantly higher rate of Adverse Events (AEs) (p = 0.01). PD-L1-positive patients had a higher probability of response and survival. In conclusion, combined ICI treatments have higher efficacy than single agents but are limited by higher toxicity. Efficacy was independent of treatment line, so a customized sequential strategy should still be speculated. PD-L1 expression could influence response to ICIs; however, reliable biomarkers are warranted