Howard Bodenhorn
Biographic Data
| ID | 963144 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Howard Bodenhorn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Howard |
| FAMILY NAME | Bodenhorn |
| SIGNATURE | BODENHORN H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Clemson University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3681-0094 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 119 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The Extent of the Market for Early American Bank Notes
How far did antebellum bank notes travel? Up to now, we did not know. Using previously overlooked data on interbank holdings of bank notes and the records of a small-time note broker, I find that most bank notes circulated within about 50 miles of the issuing banks. Few notes were observed from as far as 200 miles away. Several studies of secondary markets for privately issued currencies assume that notes moved across vast geographic space, but t…
Were Small-town New Yorkers Life-cycle Savers
Theories of household saving, including the life cycle hypothesis, posit that households add or draw down wealth to equalize the value of consumption over time. This article examines the extent to which late–nineteenth–century, small–town Americans accumulated financial assets consistent with the life cycle hypothesis. Using individual account records from a small–town savings banks, I find that savers accumulated an average of one year’s income …
The Political Distribution of Economic Privilege in Van Buren's New York
Historians have long recognized that one of the principal functions of early nineteenth-century American state governments was the distribution of economic privileges, including preferential grants of corporate privileges. North, Wallis, and Weingast label such regimes natural states and argue that government as privilege dispenser is a characteristic of most societies and, in some few instances, represents a transitional phase between traditiona…
C hristopher W. S haw . Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic
In an essay published in the Nation and Athenaeum (August 8, 1925), John Maynard Keynes addressed the question “Am I a Liberal?” Keynes explained that if by “Liberal” one meant a member of Britain’s Labour Party, then the answer was mostly no. The Conservatives offered little, but the positive argument for Labour-style Liberalism was weak. He was reluctant to align himself with a Liberal (Americans preferred the term “Progressive”) politics becau…
On Corruption in America and What Is at Stake by Sarah Chayes
The era between the New Deal and the Reagan Revolution was, according to Chayes, a period of enlightened democracy and restrained capitalism: The franchise was extended to previously excluded groups. The eight-hour workday became the norm. Blue-collar workers earned fair wages for a fair day’s work. The worst excesses of financial capitalism were checked by effective regulation. Safety nets for the elderly and the disadvantaged guaranteed a reaso…
Diagnosing Sample-Selection Bias in Historical Heights: A Reply to Komlos and A’Hearn
Our 2017 article in this Journal stresses the pitfalls of using choice-based samples in economic history. A prominent example is the literature addressing the so-called antebellum puzzle. Heights researchers claim that Americans grew shorter in the first half of the nineteenth century, a period of robust economic growth. We argue that this result relies on choice-based samples. Without knowing the process that led to inclusion in the sample, rese…
L aura P hillips S awyer . American Fair Trade: Proprietary Capitalism, Corporatism, and the “New Competition,” 1890–1940 ; M ary A. O’S ullivan . Dividends of Development: Securities Markets in the H…
Regular readers of the Wall Street Journal have been led to believe that eventually Amazon will own everything—or at least close to it (see, for instance, articles in the June 30, 2017, and May 6, 2018, online editions). Amazon fulfills nearly half of all e-commerce orders; it sells cloud computing through its massive server farms; it sells devices such as Kindle, Echo, and Alexa; it owns an organic supermarket chain; and it has embarked on a yet…
Finance and urbanization in early nineteenth-century New York
Sample-Selection Biases and the Industrialization Puzzle
Understanding long-term changes in human well-being is central to understanding the consequences of economic development. An extensive anthropometric literature purports to show that heights in the United States declined between the 1830s and the 1890s, which is when the U.S. economy modernized. Most anthropometric research contends that declining heights reflect the negative health consequences of industrialization and urbanization. This interpr…
Prison crowding, recidivism, and early release in early Rhode Island
The Plantation
The southern plantation provided an amenable environment for race mixing. But the now traditional account of slave owners forcing themselves on unwilling slave partners is overly simplistic and often, though not always, simply false. Interracial sex was a disruptive force that raised the cost of operating a plantation and, though some planters labored to limit its incidence, interracial sex occurred and with greater frequency on larger plantation…
Work
In the urban South, light-skinned men and women were employed in modestly more remunerative employment than blacks. Black men were, however, more likely than mixed-race men to enter into “petty” self-employment, such as huckstering or carting. In the rural South, black men were less likely to become tenant farmers or owners; compared to mixed-race men black men were overwhelmingly employed as farm laborers.
The Color Factor: The Economics of African-American Well-Being in the Nineteenth-Century South
This book studies how color intersected with polity, society and economy in the nineteenth–century South. Although legal historians have explored how early Americans legally defined and contested race, that literature has overlooked or downplayed the middle ground occupied by a sizeable mixed-race population of antebellum free people. These were the "talented tenth" long before W.E.B. Dubois coined the term. Economists and economic historians, to…
A Commercial Republic: America's Enduring Debate over Democratic Capitalism
Journal Article A Commercial Republic: America's Enduring Debate over Democratic Capitalism Get access Mike O'Connor. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2014. xiv, 287 pp. $34.95.) Journal of American History, Volume 101, Issue 4, March 2015, Pages 1243–1244, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jav011 Published: 01 March 2015
The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy
Journal Article The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy Get access The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy. By Thomas K. McCraw. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012. x, 485 pp. $35.00.) Howard Bodenhorn Howard Bodenhorn Clemson UniversityClemson, South Carolina [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic…
Youssef Cassis. Crises and Opportunities: The Shaping of Modern Finance
In his 2011 presidential address to the Economic History Association, Barry Eichengreen contended that the economic crisis of 2008 and its aftermath have been good for his subfield. The magnitude of the crisis was beyond the living memory of most people, so the press and policymakers turned to historians for insight. Those who study financial history were in demand. The questions most often asked were “How bad is this going to get?” and “Is this …
Manumission in nineteenth-century Virginia
Manumission in Nineteenth Century Virginia
A long-standing debate concerns the rationality of slave owners and this paper addresses that debate within the context of manumission.Using a new sample of 19th-century Virginia manumissions, I show that manumission was associated with the productive characteristics of slaves.More productive slaves were manumitted at younger ages than less productive slaves.Although more productive slaves were more valuable to slave owners, which might be expect…
Towards modern public finance: The American war with Mexico, 1846-1848 - By James W. Cummings
James W. Cummings . Towards modern public finance: the American war with Mexico, 1846–1848 ( London : Pickering & Chatto , 2009 . Pp . xiv + 226 . ISBN 9781851969883 Hbk. £60/$99 ) In many respects, modern America took shape in the Jacksonian era (c.1820–50). The economy experienced ‘take off’, to use Walt Rostow's term, into modern economic growth. Rising tensions over slavery manifested in the Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Wilmot Proviso (…
Height, weight and body mass index values of mid-19th century New York legislative officers
Height and body mass index values of nineteenth-century New York legislators
Criminal sentencing in 19th-century Pennsylvania
The political economy of sentiment: Paper credit and the Scottish enlightenment in early republic Boston, 1780-1820 - By Jose R. Torre
Colourism and African–american wealth: Evidence from the nineteenth-century south
Usury ceilings and bank lending behavior: Evidence from nineteenth century New York
Sample-Selection Biases and the Industrialization Puzzle
Understanding long-term changes in human well-being is central to understanding the consequences of economic development. An extensive anthropometric literature purports to show that heights in the United States declined between the 1830s and the 1890s, which is when the U.S. economy modernized. Most anthropometric research contends that declining heights reflect the negative health consequences of industrialization and urbanization. This interpr…
Colourism and African–american wealth: Evidence from the nineteenth-century south
A Troublesome Caste: Height and Nutrition of Antebellum Virginia's Rural Free Blacks
Formal rules and informal customs created innumerable obstacles to the socioeconomic advance of Virginia's free black population. Laws prohibited free blacks from some activities and occupations and restricted their participation in others. Racism and Klan-like terrorism also made advancement difficult. Despite these disadvantages, Virginia's free black population fared rather well. They grew nearly as tall as white Americans and towered over con…
The Mulatto Advantage: The Biological Consequences of Complexion in Rural Antebellum Virginia
Although historians have long noted that African-Americans of mixed-race in the antebellum Lower South were given economic and social preference over those with darker skin, they have denied that people of mixed race received special treatment in the antebellum Upper South as well. Examination of data on the registrations of free African-Americans in antebellum Virginia, however, reveals that adolescents and adults with lighter complexions tended…
Capital Mobility and Financial Integration in Antebellum America
Studies of postbellum financial markets have shown that the United States was not served by an integrated short-term capital market until the turn of the twentieth century. Until recently the data necessary for the study of a similar phenomenon in the antebellum period have not been available. This article reports several new regional interest rate series for the antebellum era that show that antebellum credit markets were more integrated than po…
Usury ceilings and bank lending behavior: Evidence from nineteenth century New York
Diagnosing Sample-Selection Bias in Historical Heights: A Reply to Komlos and A’Hearn
Our 2017 article in this Journal stresses the pitfalls of using choice-based samples in economic history. A prominent example is the literature addressing the so-called antebellum puzzle. Heights researchers claim that Americans grew shorter in the first half of the nineteenth century, a period of robust economic growth. We argue that this result relies on choice-based samples. Without knowing the process that led to inclusion in the sample, rese…
Risk compensation and the effectiveness of safety belt use laws: A case study of New Jersey
Private Banking in Antebellum Virginia: Thomas Branch & Sons of Petersburg
This article investigates the role of the private banking house of Thomas Branch & Sons of Petersburg, Virginia, in promoting entrepreneurship and economic development in the early United States. It argues that while Branch adopted many of the methods and practices of antebellum commercial banks in that he accepted and created deposits and followed a real-bills philosophy in his lending, he also differed from them by extending his services to a p…
Criminal sentencing in 19th-century Pennsylvania
A Commercial Republic: America's Enduring Debate over Democratic Capitalism
Journal Article A Commercial Republic: America's Enduring Debate over Democratic Capitalism Get access Mike O'Connor. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2014. xiv, 287 pp. $34.95.) Journal of American History, Volume 101, Issue 4, March 2015, Pages 1243–1244, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jav011 Published: 01 March 2015
Finance and urbanization in early nineteenth-century New York
An Engine of Growth: Real Bills and Schumpeterian Banking in Antebellum New York
The Note Issue Paradox in the Free Banking Era
In recent years a number of papers have appeared offering explanations of the long-noted, long-unresolved note issue paradox in both the free and national banking eras. Some have argued that previous profit calculations overstate the true cost of note issue because they fail to account for risks and costs that are not easily modeled. Others have argued that profit calculations are reasonably accurate and demonstrate that the bankers acted irratio…
Entry, Rivalry and Free Banking in Antebellum America
Risk compensation and the effectiveness of safety belt use laws: A case study of New Jersey
Capital Mobility and Financial Integration in Antebellum America
Studies of postbellum financial markets have shown that the United States was not served by an integrated short-term capital market until the turn of the twentieth century. Until recently the data necessary for the study of a similar phenomenon in the antebellum period have not been available. This article reports several new regional interest rate series for the antebellum era that show that antebellum credit markets were more integrated than po…
The Business Cycle and Entry into Early American Banking
The conditions of entry have been the focus of a large and growing number of theoretical and empirical studies. Several recent papers have developed new techniques for the study of entry into manufacturing industries. This paper finds those same techniques useful for the study of entry into early American financial markets. Market characteristics commonly found to influence the rate of industrial entry, as well as the course of the business cycle…
The Note Issue Paradox in the Free Banking Era
In recent years a number of papers have appeared offering explanations of the long-noted, long-unresolved note issue paradox in both the free and national banking eras. Some have argued that previous profit calculations overstate the true cost of note issue because they fail to account for risks and costs that are not easily modeled. Others have argued that profit calculations are reasonably accurate and demonstrate that the bankers acted irratio…
Private Banking in Antebellum Virginia: Thomas Branch & Sons of Petersburg
This article investigates the role of the private banking house of Thomas Branch & Sons of Petersburg, Virginia, in promoting entrepreneurship and economic development in the early United States. It argues that while Branch adopted many of the methods and practices of antebellum commercial banks in that he accepted and created deposits and followed a real-bills philosophy in his lending, he also differed from them by extending his services to a p…
A Troublesome Caste: Height and Nutrition of Antebellum Virginia's Rural Free Blacks
Formal rules and informal customs created innumerable obstacles to the socioeconomic advance of Virginia's free black population. Laws prohibited free blacks from some activities and occupations and restricted their participation in others. Racism and Klan-like terrorism also made advancement difficult. Despite these disadvantages, Virginia's free black population fared rather well. They grew nearly as tall as white Americans and towered over con…
An Engine of Growth: Real Bills and Schumpeterian Banking in Antebellum New York
The Bank of the United States and the American Economy
The Bank of the United States and the American Economy. By Edward S. Kaplan. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. Pp. x, 172. $57.95.) A History of Banking in Antebellum America: Financial Markets and Economic Development in an Era of Nation-Building. By Howard Bodenhorn. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. xxi, 260. Illustrations. $59.95.) Although both of these works deal with the general topic of banks and banking in the early na…
A History of Banking in Antebellum America: Financial Markets and Economic Development in an Era of Nation-Building
Journal Article A History of Banking in Antebellum America: Financial Markets and Economic Development in an Era of Nation-Building. By Howard Bodenhorn. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. xxii, 260 pp. Cloth, $59.95, ISBN 0-52166285-0. Paper, $22.95, ISBN 0-521-66999-5.) Get access John Majewski John Majewski University of California, Santa Barbara, California Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Jou…
A History of Banking in Antebellum America: Financial Markets and Economic Development in an Era of Nation-Building
The Mulatto Advantage: The Biological Consequences of Complexion in Rural Antebellum Virginia
Although historians have long noted that African-Americans of mixed-race in the antebellum Lower South were given economic and social preference over those with darker skin, they have denied that people of mixed race received special treatment in the antebellum Upper South as well. Examination of data on the registrations of free African-Americans in antebellum Virginia, however, reveals that adolescents and adults with lighter complexions tended…
Colourism and African–american wealth: Evidence from the nineteenth-century south
Usury ceilings and bank lending behavior: Evidence from nineteenth century New York
Single Parenthood and Childhood Outcomes in the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Urban South
Data from the urban South reveal two notable consequences of single parenthood during the mid-nineteenth century. First, white children residing with single mothers left school earlier than children residing with two parents, and black children in single mother homes started school later and left school earlier. Second, white youths in single-mother homes faced an increased incidence of labor-force participation, but black youths in the same situ…
The political economy of sentiment: Paper credit and the Scottish enlightenment in early republic Boston, 1780-1820 - By Jose R. Torre
Height, weight and body mass index values of mid-19th century New York legislative officers
Height and body mass index values of nineteenth-century New York legislators
Criminal sentencing in 19th-century Pennsylvania
Manumission in Nineteenth Century Virginia
A long-standing debate concerns the rationality of slave owners and this paper addresses that debate within the context of manumission.Using a new sample of 19th-century Virginia manumissions, I show that manumission was associated with the productive characteristics of slaves.More productive slaves were manumitted at younger ages than less productive slaves.Although more productive slaves were more valuable to slave owners, which might be expect…
Towards modern public finance: The American war with Mexico, 1846-1848 - By James W. Cummings
James W. Cummings . Towards modern public finance: the American war with Mexico, 1846–1848 ( London : Pickering & Chatto , 2009 . Pp . xiv + 226 . ISBN 9781851969883 Hbk. £60/$99 ) In many respects, modern America took shape in the Jacksonian era (c.1820–50). The economy experienced ‘take off’, to use Walt Rostow's term, into modern economic growth. Rising tensions over slavery manifested in the Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Wilmot Proviso (…
Manumission in nineteenth-century Virginia
Youssef Cassis. Crises and Opportunities: The Shaping of Modern Finance
In his 2011 presidential address to the Economic History Association, Barry Eichengreen contended that the economic crisis of 2008 and its aftermath have been good for his subfield. The magnitude of the crisis was beyond the living memory of most people, so the press and policymakers turned to historians for insight. Those who study financial history were in demand. The questions most often asked were “How bad is this going to get?” and “Is this …
The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy
Journal Article The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy Get access The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy. By Thomas K. McCraw. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012. x, 485 pp. $35.00.) Howard Bodenhorn Howard Bodenhorn Clemson UniversityClemson, South Carolina [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic…
The Plantation
The southern plantation provided an amenable environment for race mixing. But the now traditional account of slave owners forcing themselves on unwilling slave partners is overly simplistic and often, though not always, simply false. Interracial sex was a disruptive force that raised the cost of operating a plantation and, though some planters labored to limit its incidence, interracial sex occurred and with greater frequency on larger plantation…
Economics (28 works) · Political science (22 works) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (17 works) · Law (16 works) · Economic history (15 works) · Sociology (13 works) · History (12 works) · Business (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Demography (8 works)