More than ore : modern Spanish steel, 1856-1936

Contrasting the iron law of the principle of comparative advantages as the determinant of the international division of labour has attracted dissidents to the international trade paradigm over the years. Spanish Bessemer steel is an outstanding comparative advantage enigma which stands to be resolved. Spain possessed important reserves apt for ore specific Bessemer processing. Depletion of existing deposits in industrial Europe and the increasing demand for this resource endowment made this all the more relevant. This paper examines if Spain could have or should have become one of Europe's major producers of Bessemer steel

Productivity and transition in Swedish iron and steel, 1870-1940

This paper would like to analyse how Swedish iron and steel entrepreneurs reacted to the strains of increasing competition on world markets which affected the industry between 1870 and 1940. It implicitly searches for readjustments taken by the sector as a whole in order to increase productivity. A first part of the paper presents the breakdown into periods and the background to the transitions we are going to examine. We then go on to describe the data we have assembled for the contrast both from national accounts and complementary sources. We contrast the coherence of the data series by estimating total factor productivity with a primal and a dual approach and by looking at factor substitution and relative prices. Next we examine the contribution to growth of the different inputs: labour, capital, resources and TFP. We find evidence for the industry reacting to competitive strains and overall we find TFP as the main responsible force

Location of Spanish integrated steel, 1880-1936

This analysis questions whether or not Biscay was an optimal location for Spanish integrated steel mills at the end of the century and tries to determine Spain's optimal site as coal found substitutes all throughout the twentieth century. The contrast of the correct location of Spain's main production center is relevant, because a wrong location could have been introducing the inefficiencies and redundant costs which may have made Spain lose its competitivity on international markets and could have been biasing the competitivity of its products to low coal consumption. The suspicion of a mistaken location has been cornmented upon by a number of Spanish historians and economists. The first part of this paper will introduce the relevant aspects for formalizing a model for the location of integrated steel mills; together with sorne specific considerations for the case of Spain. Part two will show the methodology applied, i.e. the underlying assumptions, the model of transport cost minimization and the calibration of parameters. The contrast of the model will be completed by combining each of the two alternative sources of coal with the different iron ore sites respectively. Each combination will give us the numerical results presented in the next section. We will be able to observe how the reduction of coal consumption affects the optimal location for each of these alternative combinations of inputs. At the same time it will be easy to identify 'the supreme site' given the overall tendency to reducing the weight of coal as an input. Our preliminary conc1usions were then scrutinized by introducing the different aspects excluded from the model. Uniform transport costs were questioned and the alternative of sea transport was cüntemplated. Scope economies, such as port capacities, ore transportation costs, and labor and capital availability were considered in order to question the results we have obtained. Our final conc1usions are that Bilbao was second-best, but that Gijón as a feasible alternative never really existed. Locating Spain's principle steel mill in Bilbao guaranteed its technical drive to reduce coal consumption and sealed the loss of natural hegemony once its ore reserves depleted

MORE THAN ORE: MODERN SPANISH STEEL, 1856-1936

Contrasting the iron law of the principle of comparative advantages as the determinant of the international division of labour has attracted dissidents to the international trade paradigm over the years. Spanish Bessemer steel is an outstanding comparative advantage enigma which stands to be resolved. Spain possessed important reserves apt for ore specific Bessemer processing. Depletion of existing deposits in industrial Europe and the increasing demand for this resource endowment made this all the more relevant. This paper examines if Spain could have or should have become one of Europe’s major producers of Bessemer steel.

Productivity and Transition in Swedish Iron and Steel, 1870-1940

This paper would like to analyse how Swedish iron and steel entrepreneurs reacted to the strains of increasing competition on world markets which affected the industry between 1870 and 1940. It implicitly searches for readjustments taken by the sector as a whole in order to increase productivity. A first part of the paper presents the breakdown into periods and the background to the transitions we are going to examine. We then go on to describe the data we have assembled for the contrast both from national accounts and complementary sources. We contrast the coherence of the data series by estimating total factor productivity with a primal and a dual approach and by looking at factor substitution and relative prices. Next we examine the contribution to growth of the different inputs: labour, capital, resources and TFP. We find evidence for the industry reacting to competitive strains and overall we find TFP as the main responsible force.Iron, Steel, Sweden, Total factor productivity, Dual estimate

Putting Spanish steel on the map : the location of Spanish integrated steel, 1880-1936.

By contrasting the optimal with the actual location of Spain’s main production centre in Bilbao, we have tried to resolve the enigma that mislocation introduced an important welfare loss in Spain’s industrialisation. This analysis considers the optimal location for integrated steel mills in Spain from their origins (1880s) until the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). The first part of this article introduces the relevant aspects for formalising a model, while Section 2 applies the methodology. The numerical results show how the major technical change – the reduction of coal consumption – affected each of the alternative sites. They also allow us to identify ‘the overall optimum site’, which was not Bilbao. Our final conclusions confirm that the actual centre of iron and steel production during the period considered was a second-best location. The cost in terms of direct welfare loss, in terms of captive markets and rent-seeking used to maintain this second-best solution, and the ultimate consequences of mislocation, point to an inefficiency which has changed the course of modern Spanish industrialisation.

International activities of U.S. banks and in U.S. banking markets

The international activity of U.S. banks has grown relatively rapidly during the 1990s, as both the trading and derivatives activities of their foreign offices and their cross-border lending have increased. The growth has taken place mainly in relation to the Group of Ten and other industrial countries. Foreign bank activity in U.S. markets has also grown, but at a slightly slower pace than U.S. banking overall, resulting in a small decline in the foreign bank share of domestic commercial bank assets. The role of Japanese banks has declined sharply, and the role of European banks has expanded.Banks and banking, International ; Banking market

More than ore : modern Spanish steel, 1856-1936.

Contrasting the iron law of the principle of comparative advantages as the determinant of the international division of labour has attracted dissidents to the international trade paradigm over the years. Spanish Bessemer steel is an outstanding comparative advantage enigma which stands to be resolved. Spain possessed important reserves apt for ore specific Bessemer processing. Depletion of existing deposits in industrial Europe and the increasing demand for this resource endowment made this all the more relevant. This paper examines if Spain could have or should have become one of Europe's major producers of Bessemer steel.