Basic Information
- Position: Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of
Business Economics;
Executive office for the
Social Science
- Office Address:
Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences
Mail Code: 228-77
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California 91125
- Phone:
1+ (626) 395-4058
- Fax :1
+ (626) 405-9841
- E-mail: jlr@hss.caltech.edu
Research
Interests:
- Most of my work examines how institutions affect
economic performance over the long run.
- With Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles Postel-Vinay, I have
investigated the growth of mortgage markets from the seventeenth to the
end of the nineteenth century in France. Our most recent book is
Surviving Large Losses: Financial Crises, the Middle Class, and the
Development of Capital Markets. (Harvard University Press. 2007). We
are continuing this work by examining the institutions of local markets in
France through a sample of 108 towns and cities for which we have
collected regular cross sections of mortgage loans
- With Thomas Piketty and Gilles Postel-Vinay, we are
engaged in a large scale data project to document the evolution of the
distribution of wealth in France from 1800 to the present.
- Another project with Timothy Guinnane, Ron Harris, and
Naomi Lamoreaux seeks to evaluate how law and enterprises co-evolved in
Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. with a special focus for how
entrepreneurs might have structured their firms so as to mitigate the
costs of untimely dissolution or minority oppression.
- Other interests include the political economy of public
finance and the role of war in changing the economy.
Vita
(PDF)
Classes
Economics/SS
129: American Economic History (Syllabus
as a pdf) Course web site: American
Economic History
BEM Economics
185: The Political Economy of corporate governance 2007-08 Syllabus
SS229 Theoretical and Quantitative Dimensions of Historical Development 2007-08 Syllabus
Books
Surviving Large Losses; Financial Crises, the Middle Class, and the Development of
Capital Markets
With Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles Postel-Vinay. Harvard
University Presss 2007.
o
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/HOFSUR.html
Finance,
Intermediaries, and Economic Development.
Co Edited with Stanley L. Engerma, Philip T. Hoffman, and
Kenneth L. Sokoloff.
o
http://books.cambridge.org/0521820545.htm
Analytic
Narratives.
With Robert Bates, Avner Greif, Margaret Levi, and Barry Weingast.
Princeton University Press, 1998.
o
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6355.html
Priceless Markets; The Political
Economy of Credit Markets in Paris 1660-1870
With Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles
Postel-Vinay. University of Chicago Press 2000
o
In
English Priceless
Markets
o
In French see: Des Marchés sans Prix editions de
l’EHESS 2001
The
Fruits of Revolution; Property Rights, Litigation and French Agriculture,
1700-1860
Cambridge
University Press. 1992.
o
http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521392204
Papers by Areas of Interest
Institutional Change and Economic Growth
This work focuses on how the French
Revolution rewrote the rules that governed invest in agricultural
infrastructure and enabled a significant increase in investment in the section
when compared with the period before 1789
- Le drainage
dans le Pays d’Auge: Les conséquences des droits de propriété incertains.
In S. Ciriacono ed. Eau et
développement dans l’Europe moderne. Editions de la Maison des
sciences de l’homme, Paris, 2004, 197-217. (PDF)
- The Development of Irrigation in
Provence 1700-1860: The French Revolution and Economic Growth. Journal of Economic History, Vol.
50, September 1990, 615-638. (PDF)
Financial Markets
Published
Papers
Rural Credit in France
- Révolution et
évolution : Les marchés de crédit notarié en France, 1780-1840.”
With
Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles Postel-Vinay.
Annales E.S.C., Vol. 59
(2), March-April 2004, 387-424.
·
Rural Credit Markets and Aggregate Shocks: The Experience of Nuits St.
Georges in Burgundy, 1756-1776.” Journal
of Economic History, Vol. 54, June 1994, 288-306.
·
Credit Markets and Economic Change in Southeastern France 1630-1788.” Explorations in Economic History, Vol.
30, April 1993, 129-157.
Credit
Markets in Paris
- No Exit: Notarial Bankruptcies and
the Evolution of Financial Intermediation in Nineteenth Century Paris.”
With Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles Postel-Vinay. In S. Engerman et al.
eds., Finance, Intermediaries And
Economic Development. Cambridge University Press, 2003, 75-108.
- Information and Economic History:
How the Credit Market in Old Regime Paris Forces Us to Rethink the
Transition to Capitalism.” With Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles Postel-Vinay.
American Historical Review, Vol.
104 (1), February 1999, 69-104.
·
What Do Notaries Do?: Overcoming Asymmetric Information in Financial
Markets: The Case of Paris, 1751. With Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles
Postel-Vinay. Journal of Institutional
and Theoretical Economics, Vol. 154 (3), September 1998: 499-530. (PDF)
·
Deposits, Bankruptcy, and Notarial Credit in Late Eighteenth-Century
Paris.” With
Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles Postel-Vinay.
In Paul Servais ed., Réseaux et
cultures du crédit du XVIème au XXème siècle en Europe.
University of Louvain Press, 1997, 245-267.
·
Redistribution and Long-Term Private Debt in Paris, 1660-1726. With
Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles Postel-Vinay. Journal
of Economic History, Vol. 55, June 1995, 256-284. (PDF)
·
Economie et Politique: Les
marchés du crédit à Paris 1750-1840.” With
Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles Postel-Vinay. Annales
E.S.C., Vol. 1, January 1994,5-98.
- Private Credit Markets in Paris
1690-1840. With Philip T. Hoffman
and Gilles Postel-Vinay. Journal of
Economic History, Vol. 52 , June 1992, 293-306. (PDF)
Public
Debt in Burgundy
- The Development of Intermediation
in French Credit Markets: Evidence from the Estates of Burgundy. With Mark
Potter. Journal of Economic History,
Vol. 62 (4), Dec. 2002, 1024-1049.
- The Burgundian Estates’ Bond
Market: Clienteles and Intermediaries, 1660-1790.” With Mark Potter. In Paul
Servais ed., Réseaux et cultures du
crédit du XVIème au XXème siècle en Europe.
University of Louvain Press, 1997, 173-195.
- Politics and Public Finance in
France: The Estates of Burgundy, 1670-1789.” With Mark Potter. Journal of Interdisciplinary History,
Vol. XXVII, Spring 1997, 577-612.
Working
papers
·
The
Old Economics of Information and the Remarkable Persistence of Traditional
Credit Markets in France 1740-1899. With Philip T. Hoffman and Gilles
Postel-Vinay. Fall 2007.
·
Is Trust an Ultimate Cause? Its Role in the
Long Run Development of Financial Markets in France, in Cook, Levi,
and Hardin eds. Russell Sage Trust
Initiative Capstone Volume. with
Philip T. Hoffman Gilles Postel-Vinay.
Wealth Inequality
\
The
figure displays the share of wealth left behind by the richest individuals in
Paris
Published
papers
- Wealth Concentration
in a Developing Economy: Paris and France, 1807-1994. With Thomas Piketty
and Gilles Postel-Vinay
American Economic
Review. Vol. 96 (1), 2006, 236-56. (PDF)
Working
papers
The increased concentration of wealth in Paris
1807-1912; of
Revolution and Demography with Thomas
Piketty, and Gilles Postel
Vinay, Fall 2006.
- Data
(under construction)
Law and the Evolution of Firm Governance
The
figure displays the proportion of new multi-owner firms registered at the Paris
tribunal of Commerce by organizational form
Published
papers
- Legal
Regime and Business’s Organizational Choice: A Comparison of France and
the United States during the Mid-Nineteenth Century. With Naomi R.
Lamoreaux. American Law and Economic
Review, Vol. 7 (1), 2005, 28-61. (PDF)
- Historical
Financing of Small- and Medium-Size Enterprises. With Robert Cull, Lance E. Davis, and Naomi
R. Lamoreaux. Journal of Banking and
Finance. Vol. 30, 3017-42. (PDF)
- Corporate
Governance and the Plight of Minority Shareholders in the United States
before the Great Depression. With Naomi R. Lamoreaux. In E. Glazer and C.
Goldin eds. Corruption and Reform:
Lessons from America’s History. University of Chicago Press. 2006,
125-152. (working
paper version)
- Putting
the Corporation in its Place, With Timothy Guinnane, Ron Harris and
Naomi R.Lamoreaux. Enterprise
and Society. Vol 8, (3) 2007,
687-729.(PDF)
Working
papers
Organizing
Middle-Sized Firms in the United States and France, 1830-2000. With Naomi R. Lamoreaux.
Fall 2005.
Pouvoir et propriété dans l’entreprise pour une histoire
international des sociétés à responsabilité
limitée, forthcoming in Annales: E.S.C., January 2008. With
Timothy Guinnane, Ron Harris, and Naomi R. Lamoreaux. (English version Ownership and Control in the
Entrepreneurial Firm: An International History of Private Limited
Companies, Yale University Economic Growth
Center Discussion Paper #959, December 2007)
Other
Articles
- New
Work in French Economic History.” With Philip T. Hoffman. French Historical Studies, Vol. 23
(3), Summer 2000, 439-454.
- The
Political Economy of Absolutism Reconsidered.” In Analytic Narratives, coedited with R. Bates, A. Greif, M.
Levi, and B. Weingast. Princeton University Press, 1998, 63-108.
- The
Political Economy of Warfare and Taxation in Early Modern Europe:
Historical Lessons for Economic Development.” With Philip T. Hoffman.
In J. Droback and J. Nye eds. Frontiers of Institutional Economics.
Academic Press, 1997, 31-55.