Nuno Palma
Biographic Data
| ID | 305584 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nuno Palma |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nuno |
| FAMILY NAME | Palma |
| SIGNATURE | PALMA N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4614-6518 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The decline of child stunting in 122 countries: A systematic review of child growth studies since the 19th century
INTRODUCTION: Child stunting, a measure of malnutrition, is a major global health challenge affecting 148.1 million children in 2022. Global stunting rates have declined from 47.2% in 1985 to 22.3% in 2022; however, trends before the mid-1980s are unclear, including whether child stunting was previously prevalent in current high-income countries (HICs). We conducted a systematic review of child growth studies before 1990 to reconstruct historical…
Economic progress in twentieth-century Portugal: Revisiting the evidence
Fiscal capacity and executive constraints in early modern Europe
According to the prevailing view of Europe’s political history, constrained government and state capacity developed in tandem. In this study, we reevaluate this perspective by constructing new historical indices for executive constraints and fiscal capacity. Our findings challenge the presumed connection, illustrating that high-capacity states existed under unconstrained government, and low-capacity states existed under constrained regimes. We al…
Living standards in Angola, 1760–1975
We investigate the well-being of urban workers in Angola under colonialism. Using a newly compiled dataset derived from archival and secondary sources, we construct welfare ratios for both skilled and unskilled workers in the cities of Luanda and Benguela from 1760 to 1975. Our findings indicate that Angolan workers experienced lower economic prosperity compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world. Living standards declined during t…
The Cross of Gold: Brazilian Treasure and the Decline of Portugal
As late as 1750, Portugal had a high output per head by Western European standards. Yet just a century later, Portugal was this region's poorest country. In this paper, we show that the discovery of massive quantities of gold in Brazil over the eighteenth century played a key role in the long-run development of Portugal. The country suffered from an economic and political resource curse. A counterfactual based on synthetic control methods suggest…
An Economic History of the Iberian Peninsula, 700–2000
This is a comprehensive long-run history of economic and political change in the Iberian Peninsula. Beginning with the development of the old medieval kingdoms, it goes on to explore two countries, Portugal and Spain, which during the early modern period possessed vast empires and played an essential role in the global economic and political developments. It traces how and why both countries began to fall behind during the first stages of industr…
The Vagaries of the Sea: Evidence on the Real Effects of Money from Maritime Disasters in the Spanish Empire
We estimate the effect of money supply changes on the real economy by exploiting a recurring natural experiment: maritime disasters in the Spanish Empire (1531–1810) that resulted in the loss of substantial amounts of silver money. We find that negative money supply shocks caused Spanish real output to decline. A transmission channel analysis highlights slow price adjustments and credit frictions as mechanisms through which money supply changes a…
The rise and fall of paper money in Yuan China, 1260-1368
Following the Mongol invasion of China, the Yuan (1260-1368) dynasty was the first political regime to introduce a precious metal standard and deploy paper money as the sole legal tender. Drawing on a new dataset on money issues, prices, warfare, imperial grants, taxation, natural disasters, and population, we find that a silver standard initially consolidated the Chinese currency market. However, persistent fiscal pressures eventually compelled …
Stunting and wasting in a growing economy: Biological living standards in Portugal during the twentieth century
Portugal's real income per head grew by a factor of eight during the second half of the twentieth century, a period of fast convergence towards Western European living standards. We use a new sample of about 3,400 infants and children living in Lisbon to document trends in the prevalence of stunting and wasting between 1906 and 1994. We find that stunting and wasting fell quickly from around 1950, for both males and females. We additionally use a…
Historical gender discrimination does not explain comparative Western European development: Evidence from Portugal, 1300-1900
Gender discrimination has been pointed out as a determining factor behind the long-run divergence in incomes of Southern vis-à-vis Northwestern Europe. In this paper, we show that women in Portugal were not historically more discriminated against than those in other parts of Western Europe, including England and the Netherlands. We rely on a new dataset of thousands of observations from archival sources covering six centuries, and we complement i…
Not an ordinary bank but a great engine of state: The Bank of England and the British economy, 1694-1844
From its foundation as a private corporation in 1694, the Bank of England extended large amounts of credit to support the British private economy and to support an increasingly centralised British state. The Bank helped the British state reach a position of geopolitical and economic hegemony in the international economic order. In this paper, we deploy recalibrated financial data to analyse an evolving trajectory of connections between the Britis…
Reconstruction of the Spanish money supply, 1492–1810
How did the Spanish money supply evolve in the aftermath of the discovery of large amounts of precious metals in Spanish America? We synthesize the available data on the mining of precious metals and their international flow to estimate the money supply for Spain from 1492 to 1810. Our estimate suggests that the Spanish money supply increased more than ten-fold. Viewed through the equation of exchange this money supply increase can account for mo…
Slavery and Development in Nineteenth Century Brazil
An open access version of this article can be found in: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/publications/wp523.2020.pdf
The Efficiency of the Chinese Silver Standard, 1920-1933
We test for integration of financial markets in China during 1920-1933 using a new dataset of domestic exchange rates. Our data concerns tael-denominated telegraphic transfers between Shanghai and nine other cities. We find that Chinese financial markets, as measured by the efficiency of silver-point arbitrage, were highly integrated among major commercial hubs in north and central China, but there was a lower level of integration for more remote…
Introduction to a Special Issue on the Economic History of Portugal
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Reconstruction of regional and national population using intermittent census-type data: The case of Portugal, 1527–1864
We offer a new methodology for the construction of annual population stocks over the very long run. Our method does not require the assumption of a closed economy, and can be used in situations in which local annual gross flows are obtainable. Combining gross flows with intermittent census-type data, it is possible to arrive at local, regional and national population stock estimates at annual frequencies. We provide an application to early modern…
From Convergence to Divergence: Portuguese Economic Growth, 1527-1850
We construct the first time-series for Portugal's per capita GDP for 1527-1850, drawing on a new database. Starting in the early 1630s there was a highly persistent upward trend which accelerated after 1710 and peaked 40 years later. At that point, per capita income was high by European standards, though behind the most advanced Western European economies. But as the second half of the eighteenth century unfolded, a phase of economic decline was …
Reconstruction of money supply over the long run: The case of England, 1270-1870
This article provides a time series of coin and money supply estimates for six hundred years of English history. Two main estimation methods are proposed. The first (the direct method) is used to measure the value of government-provided, legal-tender coin supply only. Two varieties of the direct method are proposed. Additionally, an indirect method is proposed which relies on a combination of information about nominal GDP with an assumption regar…
Recensão: A Igreja Católica e o Estado Novo Salazarista
.
Sailing away from Malthus: Intercontinental trade and European economic growth, 1500–1800
From Convergence to Divergence: Portuguese Economic Growth, 1527-1850
We construct the first time-series for Portugal's per capita GDP for 1527-1850, drawing on a new database. Starting in the early 1630s there was a highly persistent upward trend which accelerated after 1710 and peaked 40 years later. At that point, per capita income was high by European standards, though behind the most advanced Western European economies. But as the second half of the eighteenth century unfolded, a phase of economic decline was …
Reconstruction of money supply over the long run: The case of England, 1270-1870
This article provides a time series of coin and money supply estimates for six hundred years of English history. Two main estimation methods are proposed. The first (the direct method) is used to measure the value of government-provided, legal-tender coin supply only. Two varieties of the direct method are proposed. Additionally, an indirect method is proposed which relies on a combination of information about nominal GDP with an assumption regar…
Historical gender discrimination does not explain comparative Western European development: Evidence from Portugal, 1300-1900
Gender discrimination has been pointed out as a determining factor behind the long-run divergence in incomes of Southern vis-à-vis Northwestern Europe. In this paper, we show that women in Portugal were not historically more discriminated against than those in other parts of Western Europe, including England and the Netherlands. We rely on a new dataset of thousands of observations from archival sources covering six centuries, and we complement i…
Not an ordinary bank but a great engine of state: The Bank of England and the British economy, 1694-1844
From its foundation as a private corporation in 1694, the Bank of England extended large amounts of credit to support the British private economy and to support an increasingly centralised British state. The Bank helped the British state reach a position of geopolitical and economic hegemony in the international economic order. In this paper, we deploy recalibrated financial data to analyse an evolving trajectory of connections between the Britis…
Slavery and Development in Nineteenth Century Brazil
An open access version of this article can be found in: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/publications/wp523.2020.pdf
Reconstruction of regional and national population using intermittent census-type data: The case of Portugal, 1527–1864
We offer a new methodology for the construction of annual population stocks over the very long run. Our method does not require the assumption of a closed economy, and can be used in situations in which local annual gross flows are obtainable. Combining gross flows with intermittent census-type data, it is possible to arrive at local, regional and national population stock estimates at annual frequencies. We provide an application to early modern…
Reconstruction of the Spanish money supply, 1492–1810
How did the Spanish money supply evolve in the aftermath of the discovery of large amounts of precious metals in Spanish America? We synthesize the available data on the mining of precious metals and their international flow to estimate the money supply for Spain from 1492 to 1810. Our estimate suggests that the Spanish money supply increased more than ten-fold. Viewed through the equation of exchange this money supply increase can account for mo…
The Efficiency of the Chinese Silver Standard, 1920-1933
We test for integration of financial markets in China during 1920-1933 using a new dataset of domestic exchange rates. Our data concerns tael-denominated telegraphic transfers between Shanghai and nine other cities. We find that Chinese financial markets, as measured by the efficiency of silver-point arbitrage, were highly integrated among major commercial hubs in north and central China, but there was a lower level of integration for more remote…
The Cross of Gold: Brazilian Treasure and the Decline of Portugal
As late as 1750, Portugal had a high output per head by Western European standards. Yet just a century later, Portugal was this region's poorest country. In this paper, we show that the discovery of massive quantities of gold in Brazil over the eighteenth century played a key role in the long-run development of Portugal. The country suffered from an economic and political resource curse. A counterfactual based on synthetic control methods suggest…
Sailing away from Malthus: Intercontinental trade and European economic growth, 1500–1800
Reconstruction of money supply over the long run: The case of England, 1270-1870
This article provides a time series of coin and money supply estimates for six hundred years of English history. Two main estimation methods are proposed. The first (the direct method) is used to measure the value of government-provided, legal-tender coin supply only. Two varieties of the direct method are proposed. Additionally, an indirect method is proposed which relies on a combination of information about nominal GDP with an assumption regar…
Recensão: A Igreja Católica e o Estado Novo Salazarista
.
From Convergence to Divergence: Portuguese Economic Growth, 1527-1850
We construct the first time-series for Portugal's per capita GDP for 1527-1850, drawing on a new database. Starting in the early 1630s there was a highly persistent upward trend which accelerated after 1710 and peaked 40 years later. At that point, per capita income was high by European standards, though behind the most advanced Western European economies. But as the second half of the eighteenth century unfolded, a phase of economic decline was …
Introduction to a Special Issue on the Economic History of Portugal
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Reconstruction of regional and national population using intermittent census-type data: The case of Portugal, 1527–1864
We offer a new methodology for the construction of annual population stocks over the very long run. Our method does not require the assumption of a closed economy, and can be used in situations in which local annual gross flows are obtainable. Combining gross flows with intermittent census-type data, it is possible to arrive at local, regional and national population stock estimates at annual frequencies. We provide an application to early modern…
Reconstruction of the Spanish money supply, 1492–1810
How did the Spanish money supply evolve in the aftermath of the discovery of large amounts of precious metals in Spanish America? We synthesize the available data on the mining of precious metals and their international flow to estimate the money supply for Spain from 1492 to 1810. Our estimate suggests that the Spanish money supply increased more than ten-fold. Viewed through the equation of exchange this money supply increase can account for mo…
Slavery and Development in Nineteenth Century Brazil
An open access version of this article can be found in: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/publications/wp523.2020.pdf
The Efficiency of the Chinese Silver Standard, 1920-1933
We test for integration of financial markets in China during 1920-1933 using a new dataset of domestic exchange rates. Our data concerns tael-denominated telegraphic transfers between Shanghai and nine other cities. We find that Chinese financial markets, as measured by the efficiency of silver-point arbitrage, were highly integrated among major commercial hubs in north and central China, but there was a lower level of integration for more remote…
Stunting and wasting in a growing economy: Biological living standards in Portugal during the twentieth century
Portugal's real income per head grew by a factor of eight during the second half of the twentieth century, a period of fast convergence towards Western European living standards. We use a new sample of about 3,400 infants and children living in Lisbon to document trends in the prevalence of stunting and wasting between 1906 and 1994. We find that stunting and wasting fell quickly from around 1950, for both males and females. We additionally use a…
Historical gender discrimination does not explain comparative Western European development: Evidence from Portugal, 1300-1900
Gender discrimination has been pointed out as a determining factor behind the long-run divergence in incomes of Southern vis-à-vis Northwestern Europe. In this paper, we show that women in Portugal were not historically more discriminated against than those in other parts of Western Europe, including England and the Netherlands. We rely on a new dataset of thousands of observations from archival sources covering six centuries, and we complement i…
Not an ordinary bank but a great engine of state: The Bank of England and the British economy, 1694-1844
From its foundation as a private corporation in 1694, the Bank of England extended large amounts of credit to support the British private economy and to support an increasingly centralised British state. The Bank helped the British state reach a position of geopolitical and economic hegemony in the international economic order. In this paper, we deploy recalibrated financial data to analyse an evolving trajectory of connections between the Britis…
An Economic History of the Iberian Peninsula, 700–2000
This is a comprehensive long-run history of economic and political change in the Iberian Peninsula. Beginning with the development of the old medieval kingdoms, it goes on to explore two countries, Portugal and Spain, which during the early modern period possessed vast empires and played an essential role in the global economic and political developments. It traces how and why both countries began to fall behind during the first stages of industr…
The Vagaries of the Sea: Evidence on the Real Effects of Money from Maritime Disasters in the Spanish Empire
We estimate the effect of money supply changes on the real economy by exploiting a recurring natural experiment: maritime disasters in the Spanish Empire (1531–1810) that resulted in the loss of substantial amounts of silver money. We find that negative money supply shocks caused Spanish real output to decline. A transmission channel analysis highlights slow price adjustments and credit frictions as mechanisms through which money supply changes a…
The rise and fall of paper money in Yuan China, 1260-1368
Following the Mongol invasion of China, the Yuan (1260-1368) dynasty was the first political regime to introduce a precious metal standard and deploy paper money as the sole legal tender. Drawing on a new dataset on money issues, prices, warfare, imperial grants, taxation, natural disasters, and population, we find that a silver standard initially consolidated the Chinese currency market. However, persistent fiscal pressures eventually compelled …
The Cross of Gold: Brazilian Treasure and the Decline of Portugal
As late as 1750, Portugal had a high output per head by Western European standards. Yet just a century later, Portugal was this region's poorest country. In this paper, we show that the discovery of massive quantities of gold in Brazil over the eighteenth century played a key role in the long-run development of Portugal. The country suffered from an economic and political resource curse. A counterfactual based on synthetic control methods suggest…
The decline of child stunting in 122 countries: A systematic review of child growth studies since the 19th century
INTRODUCTION: Child stunting, a measure of malnutrition, is a major global health challenge affecting 148.1 million children in 2022. Global stunting rates have declined from 47.2% in 1985 to 22.3% in 2022; however, trends before the mid-1980s are unclear, including whether child stunting was previously prevalent in current high-income countries (HICs). We conducted a systematic review of child growth studies before 1990 to reconstruct historical…
Economic progress in twentieth-century Portugal: Revisiting the evidence
Fiscal capacity and executive constraints in early modern Europe
According to the prevailing view of Europe’s political history, constrained government and state capacity developed in tandem. In this study, we reevaluate this perspective by constructing new historical indices for executive constraints and fiscal capacity. Our findings challenge the presumed connection, illustrating that high-capacity states existed under unconstrained government, and low-capacity states existed under constrained regimes. We al…
Living standards in Angola, 1760–1975
We investigate the well-being of urban workers in Angola under colonialism. Using a newly compiled dataset derived from archival and secondary sources, we construct welfare ratios for both skilled and unskilled workers in the cities of Luanda and Benguela from 1760 to 1975. Our findings indicate that Angolan workers experienced lower economic prosperity compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world. Living standards declined during t…
Historical Economic and Social Studies (14 works) · Economics (13 works) · Geography (9 works) · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies (7 works) · Economy (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Economic growth (5 works) · Colonialism, slavery, and trade (4 works) · Monetary economics (4 works) · Monetary policy (4 works)