Fabian Wahl

Does Medieval Trade Still Matter? Historical Trade Centers, Agglomeration and Contemporary Economic Development

This study empirically establishes a link between medieval trade, agglomeration and contemporary regional development in ten European countries. It documents a statistically and economically significant positive relationship between prominent involvement in medieval trade and commercial activities and regional economic development today. Further empirical analyses show that medieval trade positively influenced city development both during the medieval period and in the long run; they also reveal a robust connection between medieval city growth and contemporary regional agglomeration and industry concentration. A mediation analysis indicates that a long-lasting effect of medieval trade on contemporary regional development is indeed transmitted via its effect on agglomeration and industry concentration. This research thus highlights the long-run importance of medieval trade in shaping the development of cities as well as the contemporary spatial distribution of economic activity throughout Europe. The path-dependent regional development processes caused by medieval commercial activities help explain the observed persistent regional development differences across the European countries considered.

Does European Development Have Roman Roots? Evidence from the German Limes

This paper contributes to the understanding of the long-run consequences of Roman rule on economic development. In ancient times, the area of contemporary Germany was divided into a Roman and non-Roman part. The study uses this division to test whether the formerly Roman part of Germany show a higher nightlight luminosity than the non-Roman part. This is done by using the Limes wall as geographical discontinuity in a regression discontinuity design framework. The results indicate that economic development—as measured by luminosity—is indeed significantly and robustly larger in the formerly Roman parts of Germany. The study identifies the persistence of the Roman road network until the present as an important factor causing this development advantage of the formerly Roman part of Germany both by fostering city growth and by allowing for a denser road network.

Participative Political Institutions in Pre-Modern Europe. Introducing a New Database

ABSTRACT This article introduces and describes a new city-level data set on political institutions in pre-modern Europe. To be precise, it presents three variables reporting the prevalence of the different existing types of participative political institutions between AD 800 and AD 1800 in 104 cities in central Europe (Alsace-Lorrain, Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland). According to the historical studies consulted, the three included measures (intensity of guild participation in the city council, participative election procedures, and the existence of institutionalized burgher representation) represent the universe of existing political institutions in cities in this era. This new data set is potentially useful for advancing knowledge in various ongoing research debates about the impact of political institutions and regimes on city development, the effects of guilds, the relationship of economic and political institutions, the debate about the advantages or disadvantages of city states relative to territorial states, and so forth.

Origins of Political Change Ñ The Case of Late Medieval Guild Revolts

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 origins. The results show that pre-existing city-level political institutions and location in a large territorial state were important for the emergence of late medieval guild revolts. Furthermore, the agricultural productivity of the region around a city matters in a negative way confirming the role of the late medieval agricultural crisis in the outbreak of the revolts. Other important factors are a cityOs urban environment and market potential, its degree of autonomy and its commercial, industrial as well as political importance. This suggests that economic change can trigger political changes. I also found evidence for the existence of spatial spillovers from the developments in neighboring cities implying that rational strategic considerations played a role in the spread of the revolts.

Die Entwicklung des Lebensstandards im Dritten Reich : eine glücksökonomische Perspektive

Abstract The aim of this paper is to provide an explanation for the remarkable difference in the contemporary Germans’ positive self-assessment of their living conditions and the development of the most important economic welfare indicators (like GDP or consumption per capita) during the Third Reich. To explain this discrepancy, findings from the new research field of happiness economics are applied to the peacetime Third Reich to analyze the development of the standard of living in this period. To start with, the development of the most important economic determinants of happiness during the 1930s is examined, based on current life satisfaction studies. In the second step, the theory of adaption and aspiration is used to explain the growing satisfaction of the Germans after the Great Depression.

Illuminating the world cup effect: Night lights evidence from South Africa

This paper evaluates the economic impact of the

Political Change and Economic Development. Evidence from the Rise of Participative Political Institutions in the Late Medieval German Lands

14 billion preparatory investments for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. We use satellite data on night light luminosity at municipality and electoral district level as a proxy for economic development, applying synthetic control methods for estimation. For the average World Cup municipality, we find significantly positive, short-run effects before the tournament, corresponding to a reduction of unemployment by 1.3 percentage points. At the electoral district level, we reveal distinct effect heterogeneity, where especially investments in transport infrastructure are shown to have long-lasting, positive effects, particularly in more rural areas.

Participative Political Institutions and City Development 800-1800

This study investigates the effect of the rise of participative political institutions - i.e, institutions in which groups of citizens previously excluded from political life participated in the political process - in late medieval central European cities on city development. The results show, that the enlargement of political participation is not always conducive to city development. The participation of guilds in the city council, for example had an overall neutral or negative effect (depending on the importance of the guilds). Furthermore, the effect of guild participation is declining over time, implying that this form of PPI is prone to institutional degeneration and increased rent-seeking. Election of city government by the citizens, in contrast, shows a stable and robustly positive effect on city development. Hence, the decisive point for more political participation being conducive for economic development is that the increase in participation is accompanied by increased accountability of the politicians and a politic that is oriented toward public welfare than the special interests of particular groups.

Die Entwicklung des Lebensstandards Im Dritten Reich. Eine glücksökonomische Perspektive (The Development of the Standard of Living in the Third Reich. A Happiness Economic Perspective)

This study investigates the effect of participative political institutions (PPIs) that emerged in many central European cities from the late 13th century. The empirical analysis of the paper is based on newly compiled long-run data for the existence of different types of PPIs in 104 cities in the Holy Roman Empire. The effect of both an overall index of participativeness of political institutions as well as of the individual PPIs is tested empirically. When pooled over all periods and observations, there seems to be a significant positive overall effect of PPIs in the German-speaking area but not in the Low Countries. The study founds considerable spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the effect of PPIs. Furthermore, the effect of different types of PPIs differs substantially and in general seems to be short-lived. That is, the results show that the positive initial effect of some PPIs declined the longer they existed and over time.

Savings banks and the industrial revolution in Prussia : supporting regional development with public financial institutions

German Abstract: Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist es, zu erklaren, wieso die Deutschen glaubten, ihr Lebensstandard hatte sich wahrend der Friedenszeit des Dritten Reiches verbessert, wahrend die meisten okonomischen Wohlfahrtsindikatoren (wie BIP und Konsum pro Kopf) am Ende der 1930er Jahre kein hoheres Niveaus als zum Ende der Weimarer Republik erreicht hatten. Um dieses Diskrepanz zu erklaren, wendet diese Studien Einsichten aktueller glucksokonomischer Forschung auf die Friedenszeit des Dritten Reiches an um die Entwicklung des Lebensstandards in dieser Periode zu analysieren. Zunachst wird die Theorie von Adaption und Aspiration benutzt um die steigende Lebenszufriedenheit der Deutschen nach dem Ende der Weltwirtschaftskrise zu erklaren. In einem zweiten Schritt wird, ausgehend von aktuellen Lebenszufriedenheits-Studien, die Entwicklung der wichtigsten okonomischen Glucksdeterminanten wahrend der 1930er Jahren untersucht. English Abstract: The goal of this paper is to provide an explanation for the remarkable difference in the contemporary Germans positive self-assessment of their living conditions and the development of the most important economic welfare indicators (like GDP or consumption per capita) during the Third Reich. To explain this discrepancy, findings of the new research field of happiness economics are applied to the peacetime of the Third Reich to analyze the development of the standard of living in this period. First, the theory of adaption and aspiration is used to explain the growing satisfaction of the Germans after the Great Depression. In the second step, based on current life satisfaction studies, the development of the most important economic determinants of happiness during the 1930s is examined.