This dissertation examines the time series properties of floating exchange rates during the 1920s. This study benefits from the use of high frequency daily data of spot and forward exchange rates and the application of recently developed econometric techniques. The currencies examined are the U.S. dollar, French franc, Belgian franc, Italian lira and the German mark, all quoted with respect to the Pound sterling. The data set covers a period of thirty-seven months from May 1, 1922 to May 30, 1925 for all the exchange rates except the German mark, for which observations end on July 24, 1923 A detailed analysis of the behavior of spot exchange rates is carried out by testing for three, two and one unit roots. There is evidence that all the spot exchange rates are characterized by a unit root and the German mark is characterized by a unit root with a drift. Further, diagnostic tests indicate that all the exchange rate series are heteroskedastic and exhibit high kurtosis. Therefore, there is evidence against the hypothesis that spot exchange rates follow a random walk. The analysis is extended by fitting ARCH and GARCH models to explain the volatility of the market at that time The forward market efficiency is examined by testing the simple unbiasedness hypothesis, i.e., the forward rate is an optimal predictor of the future spot rate under rational expectations and risk neutrality. This is followed with tests of orthogonality of the forecast errors to different information sets. In the above tests corrections are made for serial correlation and heteroskedasticity. A VAR model is also estimated and the cross equation restrictions tested using a Wald statistic. All the tests reject the null hypothesis of an efficient market We also test for cointegration of spot and forward rates of a country. In three of the five currencies we find that the spot and forward rates of a country are cointegrated, indicating that those markets were weakly efficient. Finally, cointegration across markets is examined using a multivariate test. In general we find that the markets were not integrated across countries except in the neighboring economies of France and Belgium / acase@tulane.edu

This doctoral thesis has three objectives: (1) model the Late Mesoamerican Village; (2) execute formally the direct historical method in the Mayan lowlands; and, (3) determine through hypothesis testing whether capitalist economic structures penetrated the Mayan political economy ca. CE 1550-1606. Analytical materials derive from sixteenth-century Yucatecan Mayan- and Spanish-language primary documents and six seasons of archaeological fieldwork at Ekbalam, Yucatan, Mexico. A series of theoretical models, including Wallerstein's world-systems, Marx's historical capitalism, Luxemburg's primitive accumulation, Hagerstrand's dissemination of innovations, Hayden and Cannon's material systems, and Kroeber's horizons, inform the evidence To accomplish stated objectives. I establish a theoretical framework for the study and trace a political economic history of the early-modern European world-system focusing on the origins of capitalist production, guilds, trade fairs, and wool cloth. The role of Castile-Aragon as first avatar of the European world-system, its geographic and economic expansion to the West Indies and colonial settlement at Puerto Real, Espanola, is examined. A history of Hispanic colonization of the Yucatan Peninsula scrutinizes the roles of republicas de espanoles and republicas de indios, encomienda and doctrina that structured the colonial political economy. Elements of capitalist production are detected in primary sources I next model the Mesoamerican pre-Hispanic past, define it as a world-system, narrate a thirteenth- through sixteenth-century history, and model the Mayan political economy. The work then focuses specifically on Tiquibalon (Ekbalam). Construction of its remote past derived from primary documents and Mayan inscriptions accompanies that of its political geography, late sixteenth-century history, and eventual abandonment To evaluate the proposed models of sixteenth-century political economy, I formulate hypotheses to test with archaeological materials. A history of settlement pattern research introduces the concept of 'corporate group' as a critical threshold for analysis of artifacts and architecture. Description of three phases of fieldwork in three 500 m2 quadrants adjacent to the monumental center of Ekbalam, which systematically recovered a wide range of artifacts from 120 dwellings establishing an occupation history for each, follows. One residence and its associated artifact assemblage and production facility are examined in detail. The work concludes with evaluation of hypotheses, formal execution of the direct historical approach, and discussion of capitalist production at Tiquibalon / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation is a price history of agricultural commodities, specifically, live cattle, live sheep, beef, mutton, wheat, and maize during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the Villa de San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua, Mexico. Using data drawn from the institutions of food distribution, the meat monopoly, el abasto de carne, the grains warehouse, la alhondiga and the maize fund, el posito , this study explores the relationship between the countryside and the urban center and explains other social phenomena. Patterns of grains prices were the reverse of those found in Central Mexico. Falling maize prices, in particular, reflected the declining silver economy and declining population levels found in San Felipe during the last decades of the eighteenth century. Cattle, sheep, beef and mutton prices more closely followed the mild inflation rate found in the rest of Colonial Mexico. Frontier warfare, frequent droughts and declining silver production were the causes of this long-term economic slide. As the Chihuahuan economy did not share in the eighteenth-century economic boom experienced in Central Mexico, neither did Chihuahuan society experience the late-colonial social distortions found in the regions to the south. It is not surprising, therefore, that the residents of the northern frontier of New Spain did not participate in the Hidalgo Revolt of 1810 / acase@tulane.edu

The aim of this dissertation is to present a first statistical study of the economics of the modern art market in nineteenth-century Britain. During the reign of Queen Victoria, the arts in England experienced an unprecedented boom, and the period witnessed the emergence of modern Europe's first art market as it functions today. Through the influence of the newly emerged breed of professional picture dealers, many painters achieved celebrity status, and their works commanded unheard-of prices not equaled until the last third of the twentieth century. The period also witnessed the introduction of the first successfully produced art mass product in the form of mass marketed engravings after 'sensation' paintings This study proposes that, in addition to the conventional sociological factors, the Victorian art boom was a consequence of a process of commodification which, starting at the beginning of the eighteenth century, began to transform the English arts environment towards the gradual establishment of Europe's first art market in the modern sense This model of commodification and its use are introduced in a brief case study of the Dutch art environment of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, relying heavily on recent scholarly investigations into the economics of that region's art market. With the partial collapse of the Dutch economy towards the end of the seventeenth century, the economic center of the arts environment began to shift to England, the focus of this research. Through the application of economic models, the study illustrates how commodification occurring within the different art market components, effected specific changes which enhanced the commodity character of paintings and facilitated their exchange. It is argued that, ultimately, this commodification and its agents must be considered among the formative factors responsible for the characteristic appearance of much of English eighteenth and nineteenth-century painting. In this context, moreover, the investigation also aims to illustrate the crucial role played by middlemen in the new, market-oriented, art environment The research relies heavily on the use of statistical and micro-econometric tools with a database which consists of over forty thousand individual auction sales of paintings from around 1720 to 1910 and which was created specifically for this study. Hitherto, quantifying investigations of this type have not been undertaken in art historical research. It is one of the purposes of this study to introduce such methodology and demonstrate its merits. In addition to revealing numerous micro-aspects of the Victorian arts environment, the employment of econometric models also provides insight into macro-developments of the art market which affect our visual culture to this day / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation describes the genesis of a new labor movement. In the 1930s, radical workers created industrial unions because the craft unions did not respond to their needs. A grass roots phenomenon that eventually had systemic implications, working class militancy caused the break between AFL and CIO that opened the councils of organized labor to the unskilled. The 1930s history of CIO locals in New Orleans provides a backdrop, but the focus of the study is on the rank and file. Archival material contributed the viewpoint of contemporary CIO organizers who wrote from New Orleans. Labor newspapers and the African-American Louisiana Weekly gave further detail. The National Archives yielded the records of investigators from the Departments of Labor and Justice. The writings of Charles Logan, South West Regional Chair of the NLRB, furnished further insight The dissertation analyzes the political environment of 1930s labor conflict in New Orleans: the New Deal and its implications, the popular front and the conservative red-baiters, the political machine and its alliance with the AFL. Real representative unions promised worker control, but the employers fought hard to protect their power. Craft leaders and petty officials also defended their stake in the system. Solidarity across the lines of race and skill gave the workers their strength, but the new unions caused intense factional competition in the upper echelons of labor's own institutions The narrative begins in the 1880s with interracial cooperation on the Crescent City waterfront and continues through the radical strikes of the late 1920s, the rise of company unions in 1933 and the effect of consent elections after the Wagner Act. Grass roots activism took center stage in the labor movement after 1935. This study describes the challenge the workers themselves posed to several AFL maritime unions in 1936 and the new unions they created, particularly the CIO locals that emerged in several fields in New Orleans. A study of class, race and human relations, the work also presents the experience of the individuals, the violence CIO organizers endured and the contracts they signed in six industries / acase@tulane.edu

This study analyzes, from a mortgage banking perspective, capital formation and lending in Guadalajara, Mexico during a period of economic growth. The analysis focuses particularly upon the Church as a financial institution The following questions are answered as the basis for conclusions about the influences which most affected the formation and conservation of capital and about the influence of lending policies upon colonial economic development and social structure: (1) What was the legal framework under which lenders operated? (2) What were the important sources of capital? (3) How did the Church generate capital? (4) What were the loan underwriting and servicing policies of the Church and other lenders? The most important sources of capital within the Church were nun convents and funds which the diocese owned or controlled. As enforceable contracts, chantries and dowries were financial instruments as well as religious institutions. They funneled wealth into the Church, supplementing unrestricted donations and other revenues. However, sometime during the period 1750-1800 the volume of loans by individuals overtook the total for Church lenders Because no more than 5 percent interest could be legally charged, the diocesan Cabildo and other Church underwriters concerned themselves primarily with security of principal. Loans were usually collateralized and well-margined. Productive farms were the preferred collateral Individual lenders made mostly short-term loans, while most Church loans were for intermediate terms and usually could be extended. As a result of slow turnover, Church capital was periodically scarce Because the Church preferred haciendas as collateral, the agricultural sector of the colonial economy benefitted most from the favorable 5 percent interest rate. Merchants became members of the landowning elite, often after acquiring land through marriage alliances in which their part of the arrangement was to furnish liquid capital for the expansion of production. This was in effect equity financing which circumvented the 5 percent interest limitation. The manipulation of colonial capital resources contributed to the maintenance of an agrarian, relatively immobile society. However, colonial society was not characterized by lavish living, perhaps partly because its members often carried heavy burdens of debt / acase@tulane.edu

Maryland in the mid-nineteenth century was a state trying to balance its regional ties to both an agrarian culture based on the institution of slavery and an industrializing, urban culture. Caught in between two warring societies, Marylanders themselves were unsure of their identity given the rapid changes of the late antebellum decades. This study argues Maryland's cultural identity shifted from being a "southern" state in 1861 to being a "northern" state by 1865 in the minds of its own citizens as well as in the minds of politicians, soldiers, and civilians from other parts of the nation. This transition was the result of economic, political, and social changes that took place in the state during the late antebellum period, although cultural and ideological recognition of this shift did not occur until the war brought Maryland's dual identities into focus and compelled state citizens to choose a side in the conflict. A minority of citizens contested the state's "northern" identity both during and after the war, but the new cultural identity remained dominant largely because northern industrial, urban, and demographic patterns were already well-established and Union military policies directed most Marylanders' political and economic behavior towards a loyal and northern-looking orientation by the end of the war. Understanding these cultural dynamics in a border state like Maryland helps to clarify our vision of complicated and competing ideologies in mid-nineteenth century America.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2008. / Vita. Advisor : Richard L. Davis. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 436-467).

This dissertation explores the interplay between industrial racial hiring practices and the following institutions and transitions characterizing the inter-war period: unionization, institutional change among unions, business cycle activity, government anti-discrimination policy, and high-wage policies. The degree to which industrial racial hiring practices differed across manufacturing and mining industries and the impact that this industrial segregation had on black workers is explored. During World War I, when many northern employers first hired black workers, there was a significant difference in how black and white workers were distributed across industry. However, the segregation decreased significantly over time and it was not a contributor to the black-white income differential among industrial workers. Black workers were not employed disproportionately by industries with low wages, with low capital-to-labor ratios, or that were disproportionately dangerous. However, industrial segregation exposed them to greater unemployment risk, explaining a portion of their disproportionately high unemployment rates. The third chapter identifies some of the forces that shaped and mitigated industrial segregation. The way that black workers were distributed across industries was a function of union density, union affiliation, and tight wartime labor markets. The craft based unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor were notorious for discriminating against black labor. The industrial unions affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) actively promoted the organization of black labor. Consequently, the mean probability that a randomly selected employee in an industry was black was negatively associated with general unionization and positively associated with CIO affiliated unionization. A government agency explicitly created to aid black workers in obtaining employment in defense industries during World War II, the Fair Employment Practice Committee, did not have a significant impact on industrial segregation. The fourth chapter of the dissertation assesses the impact that the high-wage policies of the Great Depression had on black unemployment. During the inter-war period, increases in workers' share of company revenues and unionization increased black workers' share of cyclical employment. By successfully increasing these factors, the Great Depression high-wage policies caused a disproportionate share of the employment downturn to be allocated to black workers.

Over the past 25 years, long-term trends in population and employment change for the US have been dramatically altered. At the regional level, areas like the Rocky Mountain West (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, and WY) have seen the century-long decline in nonmetropolitan population reversed to some degree. Scholars from across the US have proposed several broad theories to explain these shifts; however, researchers based in the RMW have argued that any general theory of growth and development must be adapted to take into account the region's unique geography and history. For example, population and employment change in RMW has been more volatile and extreme due to the region's reliance on extractive industries. The purpose of this dissertation is to present preliminary findings of an investigation of population and employment change in the RMW in general, and to test the claims of regional researchers on the processes behind these changes. The ideas of these researchers are embodied in the quality-of-life model, which claims that changing residential preferences, demographic changes, and economic restructuring will benefit areas like the nonmetropolitan RMW, an area rich in amenities. Using a wide variety of tools ranging from descriptive statistics, to classification techniques, to multivariate regression models, this research measures how factors theorized to be associated with growth have increased (decreased) in importance over the 25 year span of this study. The results show that regionally-based ideas on growth have a place in helping scholars understand regional growth processes in a more reliable manner. More importantly, there is significant support for the quality-of-life model, especially the role of service industries and environmental amenities in driving regional growth. Answers to these questions will help scholars understand the extent to which national events are being restructured in regional contexts. Additionally, until these ideas are fully tested and shown to explain some of the events and underlying processes driving population and employment growth in the RMW, long-term policies designed to help plan for the continued growth of the region may be misguided and wasteful.