This article investigates the rise of the middle class in Brazil between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries and its connection with inequality. To this purpose Brazil's income distribution is explored from two dimensions: inequality and polarisation. A new middle class index (MCI),...

In order to understand Uruguayan long-run economic evolution it becomes crucial to interpret its export performance during the First Globalization. The lack of accuracy of official figures, especially official prices used, calls for an adjustment of Uruguayan exports series. We have used...

How has Latin America's wellbeing evolved over time? How does Latin America compare to today's developed countries (OECD, for short)? What explains their differences? These questions are addressed using an historical index of human development. A sustained improvement in wellbeing can be...

In this paper we consider adaptive Bayesian semiparametric analysis of the linear regression model in the presence of conditional heteroskedasticity. The distribution of the error term on predictors are modelled by a normal distribution with covariate-dependent variance. We show that a...

The objective of this paper is to reappraise both the accuracy of the official export statistics and the conventional narrative of Brazilian export growth during the period immediately following independence. We undertake an accuracy test of the official values of Brazilian export statistics and...

Men of finance raised funds for loans, asientos, to Philip II by trading short-term financial instruments in credit markets and by selling long-term annuities, juros. These activities are illustrated by an asiento with the Maluenda brothers (July 13, 1595), where short-term credit secured by the...

This study investigates the origins of the guild revolts in late medieval central Europe. At first, using newly compiled city level data, their temporal evolution and spatial distribution is discussed. Afterwards, the paper provides a historical discussion and empirical analysis of their...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the causes of the Hungarian financial crisis of 1931. The prevailing view is that the episode was caused by monetary forces. After the October 1929 Wall Street crash, the already indebted country with high government deficits was unfavorably impacted by...

This paper uses the Chinese historical path to mass education in the early 20th century to tackles one hotly debated question - what factors explain the rise of mass schooling? Given China's political turmoil and economic backwardness through the early 20th century, the expansion of mass...

New Economic Geography (NEG) models stress the importance of access to demand as a key driver of the spatial and temporal distribution of economic activity (Krugman, 1991). Therefore, in order to test the theoretical predictions emanating from NEG a sound measure of accessibility is required. In...