When the mortality rate is high, repeated interaction alone may not sustain cooperation, and religion may play an important role in shaping economic institutions. This insight explains why during the fourteenth century, when plagues decimated populations and the church promoted the doctrine of...

The disclosure of information to workers can take several forms (company journal, meeting with shop stewards, etc). This paper is about a form rarely studied: the boss's speech at the work medal ceremony. These medals were created by the ministry of commerce in France in 1886. The success of...

Despite the Soviet government’s declarative efforts to engage foreign capital in rebuilding the economy during the 1920s, most concessions did not last long and were liquidated before the respective contracts expired. This article considers the conditions and key outcomes of concession...

This paper focuses on the innovation system in the Benetton case: on the one hand, it puts in evidence the ability of the company in exploiting institutional conditions in order to develop a network organisation and a series of coordinated innovations; on the other hand, it investigates on the...

This work proposes a long term outlook in order to investigate the reasons explaining the development and importance of the metal-mechanic sector in Valladolid during the second half of the 20th century. We find that the political decisions after the Spanish Civil War of 1936 are determinant in...

Historians have long recognized the role of economic resources and organization in determining the outcome of World War II: the Nazi economy lacked the economic resources and organization to oppose the combined might of the U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R. A minority view is that the Germans were...

With unpublished sources, this paper draws the evolution of French banking in Spain between 1800 and 2000 and shows how French banks operated in the country, seeking, once and again, to consolidate business positions in a more and more difficult market. As the oldest foreign bank presence in the...

This working paper explores the impact of the globalization process 1970-2000 on two manufacturing industries in the Gothenburg area –SKF and Volvo. Three aspects of the process are highlighted: the development of new Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the increased mobility of...