The paper integrates the analysis of price volatility and supply instability for a commodity exporting country, adding consideration of the role of the non-tradable sector to the literature. The non-tradable sector plays a potentially significant role in changing the economy`s response to...

It is commonly accepted that the decline of the Wests woollen industry was in large part due to the greater employment of steam power by the Yorkshire industry. Using the account books of the Stroudwater Canal Company, the article examines the role of the Stroudwater Canal in bringing coal to...

A pronounced cycle of car sales in the 1950s is explained in terms of styling competition and consumer preferences. An oligopolistic industry concentrated on non-price competition, and responded to perceived consumer demand for styling and status, with an accelerated product cycle. Demand was...

This paper focuses on how uncertainty about the sustainability of reform policies could affect the irreversible investment decisions of a tradable sector firm. Demand, costs and productivity are stochastic and are correlated with real exchange rate trends for the firm producing a tradable good....

As the nineteenth century ended, three principal types of engine competed to power the early motor car. Had some minor condition been different around the beginning of the twentieth century, perhaps therefore todays road vehicles would not be powered overwhelmingly by internal combustion...

This paper presents new estimates of nominal earnings, the cost of living earnings for manual workers in Great Britain over the period 1770 to 1870. The estimates are adjusted to allow for unemployment and for the inclusion of agricultural workers in Ireland. The series are then analyzed to...

Trade Liberalisation affects not only the aggregate level of investment but also its composition. We present evidence that African trade liberalisations have been associated with sharp shifts in the composition of investment: investment involving tradable capital goods (equipment) has fallen...

This paper analyses why hours of work increased in London between 1750 and 1800. On the basis of a new technique, changes in labour input are described. The main part of the paper uses the data gathered from witnesses accounts to evaluate a number of competing hypotheses. The main part of the...

The current government of Ethiopia has put agriculture at the heart of its policies. There is particular emphasis on promoting adoption of fertiliser, improved seeds and the efficiency of input marketing and distribution. In this paper we use a nationally representative data set for 1994 to...

Little is known about the length of the working year in pre-industrial times. This paper develops a new method for analysing patterns of time-use in the past. Witnesses accounts in court records, it will be argued, reflect the actual behaviour of a group that is representative of the population...