Daniel Oto-Peralías (p), Dimitris K. Chronopoulos, Sotirios Kampanelis, John O.S. Wilson

Michael Wyrwich

This paper investigates the legacy of ancient colonialism (by the Phoenicians, Greeks and Etruscans) in shaping the modern-day population concentration and economic activity of the Mediterranean region. By combining historical data on ancient colonies and current data on population density and night light emission, we find that geographic areas colonised by these civilisations tend to have higher population concentration and economic activity in the present day. We also show that ancient colonialism affected the origin and evolution of the urban system of the Mediterranean.

Torben Dall Schmidt (p)

Michael Wyrwich

A historically recent theory on international trade points to the importance of discrimination in trade agreements, e.g. Viner (1950) or Bhagwati (1996). Discriminatory agreements on market access for specific countries constitute preferential trade agreements (PTA’s). Such behavior is an “old habit” dating back in time, as exemplified by the discriminatory nature of the Sound Toll levied on cargoes passing the strait of “Øresund” from 1429 to 1857 by the Danish King. Following Degn (2010), trade from harbor towns in France, Scotland and England had no privileges, while trade from some German and Dutch towns were given privileges. Such discrimination in market access is analyzed focusing on "sweet trade" in sugar from 15 European trading hubs and colonial towns in the "New World" outside the Baltic Sea area to 9 Baltic Sea towns from 1634 to 1857. Some of these towns were in countries given preference and others not. This is furthermore interestingly a period of large shocks and political uncertainty following the initiation of the French Revolution Wars. Based on a sample 7672 cargoes of sugar and following a gravity equation approach, the paper estimates the long-run effects of preferential treatment on trade and trade margins. It furthermore tests whether shocks and political uncertainty in terms of the initiation of the French Revolutionary Wars presents first-order effects of preferential treatment compared to the long-run effects. Results indicate that it is indeed the mix of preferential treatment and large shocks the affects trade patterns rather than long-run effects of preferential treatment in general.

Korneliusz Pylak (p), Dieter F. Kogler

Michael Wyrwich

Related and unrelated diversification take ample space in scientific and political debates. Against the backdrop of refining smart specialisations strategies, this paper identifies diversification patterns towards the highest income growth in less developed areas in 1931–2000. It is argued that both related and unrelated (in longer-term) diversifications are fundamental for evolutionary growth of less developed regions, however, only the former process has been confirmed in the analyses. Both related variety of industries and expertise in 1931 also point to successful diversification. The implications for theories of Evolutionary Economic Geography and regional policy actions in less developed regions are discussed.

(see extended abstract)
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Michael Fritsch (p), Michael Wyrwich, Martin Obschonka, Fabian Wahl

Michael Wyrwich

We investigate whether Roman presence in the southern part of Germany had long-run consequences on present-day personality profiles of citizens in these regions, with potentially important consequences for the future socio-economic trajectories of these regions. Did the Roman Limes Wall establish a cultural borderline that still divides today’s Germany in terms of local mentality and character?
To answer this question, we exploit regional-level data from a recent online survey on the Big Five personality traits in Germany. These data are combined with historical information on the location of the Roman border, Roman cities, and Roman roads.
Our regression analyses, comparing all German regions , indicate that there is a significantly positive “Roman effect” on the regional levels of extraversion and agreeableness, and a significantly negative effect one on the regional level of neuroticism among today’s population in. Germany. Furthermore, today’s German regions in the former Roman Empire seem to have a higher entrepreneurial spirit (entrepreneurial Big Five profile) than other German regions, offering a new interpretation of the already well-established finding that southern German regions that were under Roman rule are economically better developed today than non-Roman regions in Germany. In order to address questions of causality, we claim that, based on insights from previous research on the cultural and economic imprinting effect of Romans rule, the Roman border was drawn in an unsystematic way, in order to secure the minimum area necessary to connect the two provincial capitals Augsburg and Mainz. That is also why parts of the Limes follow straight lines (i.e., ignoring of topographical conditions). The same also holds true for Roman roads, which usually did not follow the least-cost path but rather were as straight as possible. To control for alternative sources of today’s regional personality differences, we include several historical and geographic controls, as well as federal state fixed effects in order to further mitigate the possibility of unobserved heterogeneity biasing the estimations.
We show that the specific character of Southern Germans as formed by the legacies of the Roman Empire is significantly connected to regional levels of life satisfaction and other socio-economic outcomes, illustrating the “real world implications” of today’s regional personality profiles that may be traced back to Roman rule.