Felis Rota, Marta

Areas of Research:

• Social Capital Measurement and Long-Run Economic Development
• Institutions and Trade

Fields of Interest:

Institutions and Trade, Economic Geography, International Economic History, Development and Growth, Technology Adoption

International Social Capital Estimates for the Nineteenth Century

 “Check it out”, says Missouri Associate Professor Peter G. Klein

Is Social Capital Persistent? Comparative Measurement in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, by Marta Felis-Rota, LSE.

ABSTRACT

Recently, there has been a growing interest in social capital and in the difficulties related to its measurement. This paper proposes to measure social capital by means of principal components analysis and presents the first available international social capital estimates for the nineteenth century. The analysis is based on a nineteenth-century international database containing a wide range of socio-economic variables. Social capital indicators are constructed for the years 1870 and 1890. Interestingly enough, these indicators are comparable to mid-twentieth century social indicators. This facilitates the study of the evolution of social capital between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the very long run, one can find a significant decline in the relative position of the European countries and the United States.

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Social Capital and Per Capita Income: Testing for a Structural Relationship in the Long Run, by Marta Felis-Rota, LSE.

ABSTRACT

There is empirical evidence showing a positive link between social capital and economic performance in the second half of the twentieth century. Is this relationship between social capital and economic performance persistent over time? Can we speak of stylised fact or structural relationship? This paper uses a nineteenth century international social capital indicator to contrast its potential synergies with per capita income at that time. The results show that the relationship between social development and per capita income already existed in the late nineteenth century. The paper finds a strong positive linear relationship between the two; and this relationship upholds after controlling for foreign trade volume and structure, urbanisation, education, quality of institutions, political stability, government expenditure, population growth, and climate.

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The Governance Threshold in International Trade, by Marta Felis-Rota

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the flows of international trade from an institutional comparative advantage perspective. It establishes a good governance threshold necessary for the well-functioning of commerce. The paper incorporates institutional quality into the gravity equation of trade through an iceberg transaction cost. Then, it replicates accessibility to foreign markets based on bilateral distance and geographical characteristics as suggested by Redding and Venables (2004) in order to estimate the GDP equation incorporating the World Bank Governance Matters indicators. The results show that only when a country enjoys high enough government effectiveness can it effectively benefit from accessibility to markets. Attributing good governance to a country that has not could imply an increase in GDP of around 20 percent.

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Economic Geography and International Inequality: The Role of Governance, by Marta Felis-Rota, LSE.

ABSTRACT

This paper replicates Redding and Venables (2004) series for Market Access for 1994 in order to re-estimate the GDP equation with alternative socio-institutional measures. Using the newly created series together with more standard socio-institutional indicators allows testing where does cross-country variation in the performance of the Market Access index arise from. The results show that the Redding and Venables (2004) results are not unconditional. Poor institutional quality undermines the positive benefits of geographical location. Only when a country enjoys high enough institutional quality can it effectively benefit from accessibility to markets.

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Economic geography matters now and then

Testing the Market Access Matters Hypothesis in Historical Perspective, by Marta Felis-Rota, LSE

ABSTRACT

I replicate Redding and Venables (2004) series for Foreign Market Access and Domestic Market Access for 1994 in order to re-estimate the GDP equation with alternative socio-institutional measures. In a second part, Foreign Market Access and Domestic Market Access are calculated for other benchmark years. Using the newly created series together with the proposed social development estimates allows testing of the relationship between market access and GDP for other benchmark years.

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Media

‘Railway Stations and the Growth of English Towns’, Economic History Society, Press Briefings, March 29th, 2011

‘Is Social Capital Path Dependent?’ Review on my work by Peter G. Klein, published at Organizations and Markets, July 17th 2007.

‘The Race for ‘Social Capital’ in the 21st Century: Asia versus the Old World’, on-line publication requested by Assist Social Capital, charity No. SC035728, Edinburgh, Scotland, 24th June 2005

same article, press release: ‘The Race for ‘Social Capital’ in the 21st Century: Asia versus the Old World’, London School of Economics: Press and Information Office, Latest News, 11th April 2005

same article, press release: ‘The Race for ‘Social Capital’ in the 21st Century: Asia versus the Old World’, Economic History Society: Media Briefings, 2005, 7th April 2005