Banks and development : Jewish communities in the Italian Renaissance and current economic performance

Are differences in local banking development long-lasting? Do they affect long-term economic performance? I answer these questions by relying on an historical development that occurred in Italian cities during the 15th century. A sudden change in the Catholic doctrine had driven the Jews toward money lending. Cities that were hosting Jewish communities developed complex banking institutions for two reasons: first, the Jews were the only people in Italy who were allowed to lend for a profit and, second, the Franciscan reaction to Jewish usury led to the creation of charity lending institutions, the Monti di Pietá, that have survived until today and have become the basis of the Italian banking system. Using Jewish demography in 1500 as an instrument, I provide evidence of (1) an extraordinary persistence in the level of banking development across Italian cities (2) large effects of current local banking development on per-capita income. Additional firm-level analyses suggest that well-functioning local banks exert large effects on aggregate productivity by reallocating resources toward more efficient firms. I exploit the expulsion of the Jews from the Spanish territories in Italy in 1541 to argue that my results are not driven by omitted institutional, cultural and geographical characteristics. In particular, I show that, in Central Italy, the difference in current income between cities that hosted Jewish communities and cities that did not exists only in those regions that were not Spanish territories in the 16th century

Productivity and the welfare of nations

We show that the welfare of a countryís infinitely-lived representative consumer is summarized, to a first order, by total factor productivity (TFP) and by the capital stock per capita. These variables suffice to calculate welfare changes within a country, as well as welfare differences across countries. The result holds regardless of the type of production technology and the degree of product market competition. It applies to open economies as well, if TFP is constructed using domestic absorption, instead of gross domestic product, as the measure of output. Welfare relevant TFP needs to be constructed with prices and quantities as perceived by consumers, not firms. Thus, factor shares need to be calculated using after-tax wages and rental rates, and will typically sum to less than one. These results are used to calculate welfare gaps and growth rates in a sample of advanced countries with high-quality data on output, hours worked, and capital. We also present evidence for a broader sample that includes both advanced and developing countries

Great Divergence: The steamship gives us clues on the impacts of globalisation

Only the few countries with strong, inclusive, institutions benefited from trade integration, writes Luigi Pascal

Branched covers of the sphere and the prime-degree conjecture

To a branched cover between closed, connected and orientable surfaces one associates a "branch datum", which consists of the two surfaces, the total degree d, and the partitions of d given by the collections of local degrees over the branching points. This datum must satisfy the Riemann-Hurwitz formula. A "candidate surface cover" is an abstract branch datum, a priori not coming from a branched cover, but satisfying the Riemann-Hurwitz formula. The old Hurwitz problem asks which candidate surface covers are realizable by branched covers. It is now known that all candidate covers are realizable when the candidate covered surface has positive genus, but not all are when it is the 2-sphere. However a long-standing conjecture asserts that candidate covers with prime degree are realizable. To a candidate surface cover one can associate one Y -> X between 2-orbifolds, and in a previous paper we have completely analyzed the candidate surface covers such that either X is bad, spherical, or Euclidean, or both X and Y are rigid hyperbolic orbifolds, thus also providing strong supporting evidence for the prime-degree conjecture. In this paper, using a variety of different techniques, we continue this analysis, carrying it out completely for the case where X is hyperbolic and rigid and Y has a 2-dimensional Teichmueller space. We find many more realizable and non-realizable candidate covers, providing more support for the prime-degree conjecture.Comment: Some slips in the first version have been corrected, and a reference to the omitted proofs now fully available online has been added; 44 pages, 14 figure

Productivity, welfare and reallocation : theory and firm-level evidence

A considerable literature has focused on the determinants of total factor productivity (TFP), prompted by the empirical finding that TFP accounts for the bulk of long-term growth. This paper offers a deeper reason for such focus: the welfare of a representative consumer is summarized by current and anticipated future Solow productivity residuals. The equivalence holds for any specification of technology and market structure, as long as the representative household maximizes utility while taking prices parametrically. This result justifies total factor productivity as the right summary measure of welfare, even in situations where it does not properly measure technology, and makes it possible to calculate the contributions of disaggregated units (industries or firms) to aggregate welfare using readily available data. Based on this finding, the authors compute firm and industry contributions to welfare for a set of European countries (Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain) using industry-level and firm-level data. With additional assumptions about technology and market structure (specifically, that firms minimize costs and face common factor prices), the authors show that welfare change can be further decomposed into three components that reflect, respectively, technical change, aggregate distortions, and allocative efficiency. Then, using the appropriate firm-level data, they assess the importance of each of these components as sources of welfare improvement in the same set of European countries.Economic Theory&Research,E-Business,Economic Growth,Labor Policies,Technology Industry

Verso la nuova stagione della sostenibilità condivisa. Effetti su territorio, città e pianificazione locale

Verso la nuova stagione della sostenibilità condivisa. Effetti su territorio, città e pianificazione locale Paolo De Pascali, Valentina Alberti, Michele Reginaldi Le politiche per la sostenibilità mostrano evidenti elementi di criticità. In particolare gli accordi internazionali si sono resi scarsamente efficaci per promuovere la sostenibilità in sede locale Il commercio delle emissioni (cap & trade) è il cardine delle politiche (anche UE). L’ipotesi che vengano favoriti interventi low carbon nella competizione con il prezzo delle emissioni finora si è rivelata errata nell’attuale sistema di mercato e di finanza speculativa Emission trading risulta inefficace per la riconversione verde dell’economia diffusa, non arriva ai territori. Anche burden sharing non ha penetrazione in basso, si ferma a regione e riguarda i grandi impianti energy intensive Sul decentramento e localismo energetico la politica UE si muove con circospezione e debolezza, senza decise direttive operative; il processo di decentramento locale della liberalizzazione risulta lento e poco pervasivo Manca una politica di supporto al localismo. Le politiche di sostenibilità non arrivano ai territori e non partono da essi; interessano poco i processi di piano locale; i PAES come strumenti di marketing politico e non piani effettivi La green economy mira a seguire i canoni della old economy del business centralizzato con scarse ricadute sulle comunità locali. La mancanza di radicamento e controllo sociale ha favorito anche nel settore delle rinnovabili l’economia del malaffare Nascono dal basso iniziative autonome di sostenibilità su modelli di sharing economy basati su fattori di condivisione e inclusione avanzate. Il processo di liberalizzazione dell’energia può essere il motore della condivisione allargata per nuova sostenibilità condivisa e non imposta La strategia delle Community Energy si basa su un quadro teso a ribaltare il paradigma procedurale centro/periferia nei modelli locali di sviluppo. Persegue inoltre l'obiettivo di qualificazione energetica delle comunità locali secondo la valutazione dei relativi benefici sociali Il modello di distretto energetico può diventare la proiezione territoriale della comunità (condivisa e inclusiva) dell’energia, il contesto fisico-spaziale in cui collimano domanda e offerta di energia, l’ambito socio-tecnico di progetto in cui convergono fattori di trasformazione del territorio e innovazioni dell’assetto sociale Incidono fattori finanziari nell’investimento; alcune attuali tendenze possono giocare a favore o contro l’autodeterminazione della comunità; ICT alla scala urbana e piattaforme di supporto all’economia condivisa possono o meno contribuire alla definizione di confini geografici della comunità e allargare a portatori di interesse esterni Se da un lato viene facilitato il reperimento dei finanziamenti necessari per l'avvio dei progetti, la perdita dei riferimenti spaziali potrebbe però potenzialmente snaturare l'intento di qualificazione sociale degli utili che la comunità locale sarebbe portata a reinvestire nel proprio territorio, indebolendo considerevolmente le capacità di controllo del processo con possibili ricadute anche sulle logiche stesse di governo del territorio. Il progetto di distretto di comunità può promuovere piani di riqualificazione urbana con recupero dell’esistente, integrazione delle funzioni, infilling, agricoltura urbana food e no food, forestazione e naturalizzazione, infrastrutturazione ecologico ambientale, rigenerazione della città sociale 20 Principi e obiettivi oramai ineludibili di sostenibilità localmente condivisa (sharing sustainability), trovano prospettive nell’azione delle comunità e dei territori in campo energetico, in tale contesto possono riempire di nuovi contenuti, procedure e attori l’azione pianificatoria locale (in evidente declino in questa fase storica), rilanciandone il ruolo e le potenzialità applicativeThe classical standards of sustainability, so defined in the last century and mostly top-down oriented, show clear signs of crisis, while the effects of the liberalisation process of the energy market, albeit still too slowly, are going to mark a new systemic change in the sustainability issues, with relevant implications at a socio-economic perspective and in the organisation of cities and rural areas. This process is opening the way for the development of models that incorporate local potentiality and the pursuit of objectives of sustainable territorial development, social inclusion and environmental respect. The current research aims to identify and examine the new innovative practices linked with the theme of sharing energy production that are arising from liberalization process, the correspondence between practices of social organization and effect of territorial governance and transformation. Production, distribution and consumption of energy, as well as the canons of expanded government that characterise them, are confronted with the functional organisation of the territory and they can produce gradual transformation towards forms of better coherence between governance and sustainability targets; the local inclusive community can determine a new energy district model and energy district can contribute to build up communities

Banks and development : Jewish communities in the Italian Renaissance and current economic performance

Are differences in local banking development long lasting? Do they affect economic performance? I answer these questions by relying on a historical development that occurred in Italian cities during the Renaissance. A change in Catholic doctrine led to the development of modern banks in cities hosting Jewish communities. Using Jewish demography in 1500 as an instrument, I provide evidence of extraordinary persistence in the level of banking development across Italian cities and substantial effects of local banks on per capita income. Additional firm-level analyses suggest that banks exert large effects on aggregate productivity by reallocating resources toward more efficient firms

Religion, division of labor and conflict : anti-semitism in Germany over 600 years

We study the role of economic incentives in shaping the co-existence of Jews, Catholics and Protestants, using novel data from Germany for 1,000+ cities. The Catholic usury ban and higher literacy rates gave Jews a specific advantage in the moneylending sector. Following the Protestant Reformation (1517), the Jews lost these advantages in regions that became Protestant. We show 1) a change in the geography of anti-Semitism with persecutions of Jews and anti-Jewish publications becoming more common in Protestant areas relative to Catholic areas; 2) a more pronounced change in cities where Jews had already established themselves as moneylenders. These findings are consistent with the interpretation that, following the Protestant Reformation, Jews living in Protestant regions were exposed to competition with the Christian majority, especially in moneylending, leading to an increase in anti-Semitism