This paper presents the outline of the evolution of woodlands in Early Modern Age in the Tierra de Madrid. There were two different areas: the south and east, with an advanced process of deforestation at the late Middle Ages, and the north and west, where the main forest thickness was...

This paper discusses how Spain’s housing markets reacted to the far-reaching changes that affected the demand for dwellings during the first phase of the rural-urban transition process. To this end, we construct a new hedonic index of real housing prices and assemble a cross-regional panel...

This paper is an attempt at assessing the economic impact of market-oriented reforms undertaken during General Franco’s dictatorship, in particular, the 1959 Stabilization and Liberalization Plan. Using an index of macroeconomic distortions (IMD) the relationship between economic policies and...

Long-run trends in Africa’s well-being are provided on the basis of a new index of human development, alternative to the UNDP’s HDI. A sustained improvement in African human development is found that falls, nonetheless, short of those experienced in other developing regions. Within Africa,...

The gold standard began to emerge as a universal monetary system in the late 1870s, and it had spread throughout the world economy by 1900. It was unusual for nations to be off the gold standard, and it meant that they were detached from the international financial community. Spain never joined...

La evolución de la economía argentina en el período 1862-2008 ha sido por lo menos desconcertante. Entre 1860 y 1930 Argentina creció a un ritmo con pocos paralelos en la historia económica mundial. En los años siguientes, sin embargo, comenzó un proceso de desaceleración y estancamiento...

In Spain, land reform involving the break-up of large southern estates was a central issue during the first decades of the twentieth century. It was justified on the grounds of economic efficiency, social equity and the distribution of political power. This paper uses new provincial data on...

La capacidad de competir globalmente ha sido algo cambiante en el tiempo. Los procesos de innovación tecnológica y la educación condicionan en gran medida el crecimiento económico y esa competitividad internacional. La evolución y desarrollo histórico de los derechos de propiedad...

The large public debt was created in 16th century Castile. A new view of its fiscal system is presented. The main part of the debt was in perpetual redeemable annuities and its credibility was enhanced by decentralized funding through taxes administered by cities that represented the Realm in...

Although some recent studies have provided fresh intellectual insights on the role of patent practitioners during the nineteenth century, they have largely overlooked the activity of these actors in international patenting and peripheral countries. This study will fill a gap in the existing...