Ownership, financial strategy and performance: the Lancashire cotton textile industry, 1918–1938

This article assesses the validity of John Maynard Keynes' claim that the Lancashire cotton industry failed to restructure because the banks as debt holders prevented firms exiting the industry, creating persistent over-capacity. Using case studies from a substantial sample of Lancashire firms, the article explores archival evidence to establish their financial characteristics, to examine their equity and debt finance and the governance roles of directors and outside ownerhip groups. On the basis of this review the article develops hypotheses to suggest alternatives to the view that bank debt was the dominant explantion of firm level behaviour and industry failure. Applying these to a statistical dataset, results show that syndicates of local shareholders, not banks, were an important impediment to the exit of firms. Moreover, syndicates milked firms of any profits through dividends, thereby limiting reinvestment and re-equipment possibilities. Our results show that where laissez-faire fails in response to a crisis, incumbent investors, particularly block-holders, can be an important impediment to corporate restructuring

Economics Imperialism in Law and Economics

Non peer reviewe

Symposium on Federico Caff\ue8: public policy and economic thought

Si tratta della curatela di una raccolta di saggi su Federico Caff\ue8, contenuta all'interno di un numero della rivista 'History of Economic Ideas' (ISSN: 1122-8792), con saggi di P. Ramazzotti ("Introduction" e "The \uabsolitude of the reformist\ubb. Public policy and value judgments in the work of Federico Caff\ue8"), R. Schiattarella ("Caff\ue8 and the \uabcraft of the economist\ubb"), L. Milone ("The roots of the International Monetary Fund\u2019s difficulties: the pioneering contribution of Federico Caff\ue8") e M. Cangiani e P. Frigato ("Federico Caff\ue8 and institutional economics"

In lei c'è la stoffa per vestire un economista: Carlo Rosselli e gli economisti della scuola di Torino

L'articolo si sofferma sull'attività e la formazione di Carlo Rosselli come economist