IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lmu/muenar/15926.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic crises and the European revolutions of 1848

Author

Listed:
  • Berger, Helge
  • Spoerer, Mark

Abstract

Recent historical research tends to view the 1848 revolutions in Europe as caused by a surge of radical ideas and by long-term socioeconomic problems. However, many contemporary observers interpreted much of the upheaval as a consequence of shortterm economic causes, specifically the serious shortfall in food supply that had shaken large parts of the Continent in 1845–1847, and the subsequent industrial slump. Applying standard quantitative methods to a data set of 27 European countries, we show that it was mainly immediate economic misery, and the fear thereof, that triggered the European revolutions of 1848.

Suggested Citation

  • Berger, Helge & Spoerer, Mark, 2001. "Economic crises and the European revolutions of 1848," Munich Reprints in Economics 15926, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenar:15926
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/15926/1/economic_crises.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. E. J. Hobsbawm, 1952. "Economic Fluctuations And Some Social Movements Since 1800," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 5(1), pages 1-25, August.
    2. John Komlos, 1983. "The Habsburg Monarchy as a Customs Union: Economic Development in Austria-Hungary in the Nineteenth Century," Books by John Komlos, Department of Economics, University of Munich, number 4, June.
    3. Williamson, Jeffrey G., 1990. "The impact of the Corn Laws just prior to repeal," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 123-156, April.
    4. C. N. Ward-Perkins, 1950. "The Commercial Crisis Of 1847," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 75-94.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aligica, Paul Dragos, 2013. "Institutional Diversity and Political Economy: The Ostroms and Beyond," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199843909.
    2. Sascha Becker & Francesco Cinnirella & Ludger Woessmann, 2010. "The trade-off between fertility and education: evidence from before the demographic transition," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 177-204, September.
    3. Aidt, Toke S. & Jensen, Peter S., 2014. "Workers of the world, unite! Franchise extensions and the threat of revolution in Europe, 1820–1938," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 52-75.
    4. Rabah Arezki & Markus Brückner, 2011. "Food prices and political instability," NCID Working Papers 01/2011, Navarra Center for International Development, University of Navarra.
    5. Quoc-Anh Do & Filipe R. Campante, 2009. "Keeping Dictators Honest: the Role of Population Concentration," Working Papers 01-2009, Singapore Management University, School of Economics.
    6. Markus Brückner & Antonio Ciccone, 2011. "Rain and the Democratic Window of Opportunity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(3), pages 923-947, May.
    7. Maria Waldinger, 2023. "“Let Them Eat Cake”: Drought, Peasant Uprisings, and Demand for Institutional Change in the French Revolution," CESifo Working Paper Series 10303, CESifo.
    8. Maria Waldinger, 2015. "The economic effects of long-term climate change: evidence from the little ice age," GRI Working Papers 214, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    9. Sarferaz, Samad & Uebele, Martin, 2009. "Tracking down the business cycle: A dynamic factor model for Germany 1820-1913," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 368-387, July.
    10. Carlos Bastien, 2011. "1848: A Primeira Crise da Teoria Económica," Notas Económicas, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, issue 34, pages 57-66, December.
    11. Vidal-Robert, Jordi, 2013. "War and Inquisition: Repression in Early Modern Spain," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 119, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    12. Ticku, R. & Shrivastava, A. & Iyer, S., 2018. "Economic Shocks and Temple Desecrations in Medieval India," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1862, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    13. Mark Dincecco, 2010. "The Political Economy Of Fiscal Prudence In Historical Perspective," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 1-36, March.
    14. George Tridimas, 2014. "Why some democracies are headed by a monarch?," ICER Working Papers 07-2014, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    15. Bengtsson, Erik, 2016. "Inequality and the working class in Scandinavia 1800 to 1910 - Workers' share of growing income," Lund Papers in Economic History 142, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    16. Bittencourt, Manoel & Gupta, Rangan & Makena, Philton & Stander, Lardo, 2022. "Socio-political instability and growth dynamics," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 46(4).
    17. Baten, Joerg & Mumme, Christina, 2013. "Does inequality lead to civil wars? A global long-term study using anthropometric indicators (1816–1999)," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 56-79.
    18. Quoc-Anh Doy & Filipe R. Campante, 2009. "Keeping Dictators Honest : the Role of Population Concentration," Governance Working Papers 22076, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    19. Dawn Brancati & Adrián Lucardi, 2019. "Why Democracy Protests Do Not Diffuse," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(10), pages 2354-2389, November.
    20. Lin, Faqin & Sim, Nicholas C.S., 2014. "Baltic Dry Index and the democratic window of opportunity," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 143-159.
    21. Martin Paldam, 2020. "A study of triggering events: When do political regimes change?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 181-199, January.
    22. Pablo Garcia Sanchez, 2022. "Introduction to weather extremes and monetary policy," BCL working papers 163, Central Bank of Luxembourg.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marc Flandreau & Mathilde Maurel, 2005. "Monetary Union, Trade Integration, and Business Cycles in 19th Century Europe," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 135-152, April.
    2. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Isabel Schnabel, 2014. "Bubbles and Central Banks: Historical Perspectives," Working Papers 1411, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, revised 31 Oct 2014.
    3. Kennedy, Liam, 2022. "Famine as genocide? Ukraine and Ireland," QUCEH Working Paper Series 22-03, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    4. Harris, Edwyna & La Croix, Sumner, 2021. "Understanding the gains to capitalists from colonization: Lessons from Robert E. Lucas, Jr., Karl Marx and Edward Gibbon Wakefield," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 348-359.
    5. Alan M. Taylor, 2002. "Globalization, Trade, and Development: Some Lessons From History," NBER Working Papers 9326, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Zissimos, Ben, 2017. "A theory of trade policy under dictatorship and democratization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 85-101.
    7. Filip Novokmet, 2018. "The long-run evolution of inequality in the Czech Lands, 1898-2015," PSE Working Papers hal-02878212, HAL.
    8. Ejrnã†S, Mette & Persson, Karl Gunnar, 2010. "The gains from improved market efficiency: trade before and after the transatlantic telegraph," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(3), pages 361-381, December.
    9. Max‐Stephan Schulze & Nikolaus Wolf, 2012. "Economic nationalism and economic integration: the Austro‐Hungarian Empire in the late nineteenth century," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 65(2), pages 652-673, May.
    10. Sugimoto, Yoshiaki & Nakagawa, Masao, 2011. "Endogenous trade policy: Political struggle in the growth process," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 12-29, February.
    11. Carlo Ciccarelli & Anna Missiaia, 2018. "The fall and rise of business cycle co-movements in Imperial Austria’s regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 60(1), pages 171-193, January.
    12. Joan R. Ros s & Kevin H. O'Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2007. "Globalization, Growth and Distribution in Spain 1500-1913," Trinity Economics Papers tep0407, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    13. Sascha O. Becker & Katrin Boeckh & Christa Hainz & Ludger Woessmann, 2016. "The Empire Is Dead, Long Live the Empire! Long‐Run Persistence of Trust and Corruption in the Bureaucracy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 40-74, February.
    14. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/670 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Peter H. Lindert & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2003. "Does Globalization Make the World More Unequal?," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization in Historical Perspective, pages 227-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Allen, Robert C., 2009. "Engels' pause: Technical change, capital accumulation, and inequality in the british industrial revolution," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 418-435, October.
    17. Schulze, Max-Stephan, 1997. "Re-estimating Austrian GDP, 1870-1913: methods and sources," Economic History Working Papers 22410, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    18. Michael Pammer, 2015. "Income inequality in Imperial Austria, 1911," Working Papers 15028, Economic History Society.
    19. N. F. R. Crafts, 1997. "Some Dimensions of the ‘Quality of Life’ During the British Industrial Revolution," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 50(4), pages 617-639, November.
    20. Christopher Bliss, 2003. "A Specific‐Factors Model with Historical Application," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 268-278, May.
    21. Alain Clément, 2005. "Régulation économique et sociale et libéralisme mondial dans l'Angleterre de la première moitié du XIXe siècle : les corn laws en débat," Post-Print halshs-00138310, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lmu:muenar:15926. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tamilla Benkelberg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.