Why do public policies change little over time in individual places, sometimes for centuries? We investigate different mechanisms for policy persistence. Several city mayors serving in democratic Weimar Germany were expelled by the Nazis in 1933, but re-installed by the Allies after World War...

The article treats the history of Germany’s Great Inflation from 1914 to 1923. It focusses on explaining the turning points of wholesale price trends. It demonstrates that these were mostly triggered by national and international political decisions immediately impacting the mark exchange...

We investigate how internal distribution motives can interfere with the economic objectives of capital controls. In order to do this, we provide a model showing that elite capture can affect optimal debt repatriations and the management of official reserves under capital controls. Relying on...

A burgeoning literature on repression against civilians argues that exposure to violence changes victims' identities by strengthening attachment to the in-group and creates downstream effects for political and social behaviour that persist across generations. In this paper, we ask whether...

Guinnane and Hoffman (subsequently GH) comment on two of our papers: Voigtländer and Voth: "Persecution Perpetuated" (2012, subsequently PP) and Satyanath, Voigtländer and Voth: Bowling for Fascism (2017, subsequently BF). They allege that our econometric results are fragile and depend on...

The persistence literature in economics and related disciplines connects recent outcomes to events long ago. This influential literature marks a promising development but has drawn criticism. We discuss two prominent examples that ground the rise of the Nazi Party in distant historical roots....

Does repression of opposition elites prevent resistance against foreign-imposed regimes? On the one hand, elimination of elites can undermine the opposition's capacity for antiregime resistance. Yet killing opposition elites deprives the new regime of useful human capital. Co-optation of elites...

I present the first database of historical local population figures for all Germany. The German Local Population Database (GPOP) includes total population in 1871, 1910, 1939, 1946, 1961, 1987, 1996, 2011, and 2019 for the universe of all German municipalities, counties, and states at consistent...

We compare sequential, binary voting schemes conducted by privately informed agents with interdependent preferences and three alternatives a compromise alternative in addition to two "extreme" alternatives on the left and on the right. The Anglo-Saxon amendment procedure always selects the...

Russia and Germany both industrialized later than England and the United States, and both countries retained authoritarian autocracies until World War I. But the two countries diverged in their regulation of industrial corporations during the mid-19th century, with Russia retaining strict...

We investigate how internal distribution motives can interfere with the economic objectives of capital controls. In order to do this, we provide a model showing that elite capture can affect optimal debt repatriations and the management of official reserves under capital controls. Relying on...

Das Deutsche Reich feiert 2021 seinen 150. Geburtstag. Die Reichsgründung fiel in die zweite Phase der Industrialisierung, die in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts begann und sich zunehmend beschleunigte. Anlässlich des diesjährigen Jubiläums widmen sich die Autoren bedeutenden...

Wer sich mit Geld und Banken im Deutschen Reich in der Zeit des späten Kaiserreiches und der Weimarer Republik beschäftigt, stößt unweigerlich auf den Namen Alfred Lansburgh (1872-1937) und seine Zeitschrift "Die Bank", die von 1908 bis 1943 erschien. Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung...

Trade theorists have come to understand that their theory is ambiguous on the question: Are trade and factor flows substitutes? While this sounds like an open invitation for empirical research, hardly any serious econometric work has appeared in the literature. This paper uses history to fill...

We study the dynamics of income inequality, capital concentration, and voting outcomes before 1914. Based on new panel data for Prussian counties and districts we re-evaluate the key economic debate between Marxists and their critics before 1914. We show that the increase in inequality was...

Between 1890 and 1913, Russian Empire experienced a rapid transition to an industrial economy, catching up with Western countries. Using accidental elements in German settlement locations in Russia 1763-1861, the paper estimates the effects of the more educated Germans in Russia’s industrial...

According to Gibrat’s law for cities, population shocks have permanent effects on city size. I examine this implication by analysing the persistence of observed population shocks: German military casualties in WWI by municipality of birth. I find a strong negative effect of military casualties...

Can bombs and broadcasts instigate resistance against a foreign regime? In this paper, we examine the canonical case of bombing designed to undermine enemy morale-the Allied bomber offensive against Germany during World War II. Our evidence shows that air power and the airwaves indeed undermined...

Das Deutsche Reich feiert 2021 seinen 150. Geburtstag. Die Reichsgründung fiel in die zweite Phase der Industrialisierung, die in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts begann und sich zunehmend beschleunigte. Anlässlich des diesjährigen Jubiläums widmen sich die Autoren bedeutenden...