Investment and Diversification in the American Whaling Industry
Abstract
This article analyzes the connection between investment decisions and financing arrangements in the nineteenth-century American whaling industry. Managers of whaling ventures shared their risks by selling some equity claims but retained a substantial portion due to moral hazard considerations. As a result, they had little incentive to consider the covariance between their own returns, and those of others, in planning their voyages. This stifled diversity in whaling voyages and increased industry-wide risk. The analysis suggests a link between financial market development, or the extent of risk sharing in financial markets, and the range of economic activities pursued.Download Info
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Article provided by Cambridge University Press in its journal The Journal of Economic History.
Volume (Year): 67 (2007)
Issue (Month): 02 (June)
Pages: 292-314
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Hilt, Eric, 2008.
"The negative trade-off between risk and incentives: Evidence from the american whaling industry,"
Explorations in Economic History,
Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 424-444, September.
- Eric Hilt, 2006. "The Negative Trade-off Between Risk and Incentives: Evidence from the American Whaling Industry," NBER Working Papers 11960, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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