London School of Economics and Political Science

About: London School of Economics and Political Science is a education organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Politics. The organization has 8759 authors who have published 35017 publications receiving 1436302 citations.

Craft Guilds, Apprenticeship, and Technological Change in Preindustrial Europe

Abstract: This article argues that medieval craft guilds emerged in order to provide transferable skills through apprenticeship. They prospered for more than half a millennium because they sustained interregional specialized labor markets and contributed to technological invention by stimulating technical diffusion through migrant labor and by providing inventors with temporary monopoly rents. They played a leading role in preindustrial manufacture because their main competitor, rural putting out, was a net consumer rather than producer of technological innovation. They finally disappeared not through adaptive failure but because national states abolished them by decree.

Coordination Risk and the Price of Debt

Abstract: Creditors of a distressed borrower face a coordination problem. Even if the fundamentals are sound, fear of premature foreclosure by others may lead to pre-emptive action, undermining the project. Recognition of this problem lies behind corporate bankruptcy provisions across the world, and it has been identified as a culprit in international financial crises, but has received scant attention from the literature on debt pricing. The apparent multiplicity of equilibria is a barrier to development of this issue in asset pricing, but this multiplicity is only apparent. Without common knowledge of fundamentals, the incidence of failure is uniquely determined provided that private information is precise enough. This affords a way to price the coordination failure. There are two further conclusions. First, coordination is more difficult to sustain when fundamentals deteriorate. Thus, when fundamentals deteriorate, the onset of crisis can be very swift. Second, "transparency" -- in the sense of greater provision of information to the market -- does not generally mitigate the coordination problem. Transparency is not a panacea.

The Economics of Development: A Survey

Abstract: I. THE SUBJECT Our definition of the subject will be the use of economic analysis to understand the economies of poor or developing countries. This includes, in particular, how standards of living in the population are determined, and how they change over time, and further how policy can or should be used in the influence of these processes. The definition contains, in principle, much or most of analytical methods in economics insofar as they can be put to use in the examination of the issues of interest. This is as it should be but it poses a problem for a survey in a journal. A comprehensive treatment is infeasible so we shall follow a different route. The survey will focus on what I take to be the major themes and approaches which characterise the productive aspects of the subject. There is, therefore, no pretence at being exhaustive. The purpose is rather to highlight some of the advances. Many of these have been of real substance. There are a number of possible purposes for a survey and it is important to be clear at the outset for whom it is intended, what it is, and what it is not. This survey is addressed to economists and students of economics who .know the tools of their trade but not necessarily how they have been applied to, and fashioned for, the analysis of the economics of developing countries. It is a description of the ways in which problems can be productively formulated and approached, in terms of examples chosen for their intrinsic importance and interest. The vastness of the subject means that we have to be highly selective. It does not seek to provide a summary evaluation of the current view of the 'appropriate' response to immediate policy questions. It is not a history of thought, nor a research manifesto nor an attempt to adjudicate or settle the major debates. Where they arise naturally from the major purpose some judgements on these subjects will be offered, but they do not themselves constitute the primary intent of this survey. There are three lines of enquiry, or sets of questions, which have, I suggest, been distinctive of the most fruitful work in development economics. They will

Revolving Door Lobbyists

Abstract: We study how ex-government ocials benet from the personal connections acquired during public service. Lobbyists with experience in the oce of a US Senator suer a 24% drop in generated revenue when that Senator leaves oce. The eect is immediate, discontinuous around the exit period, and long-lasting. Consistent with the notion that lobbyists sell access to powerful politicians, the drop in revenue is increasing in the committee assignments power held by the exiting politician.