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Grain Market Integration in the Baltic Sea Region in the Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2015

Fredrik N.G. Andersson
Affiliation:
Fredrik N.G. Andersson is Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, Lund University, Sweden. E-mail: ngf.andersson@nek.lu.se.
Jonas Ljungberg
Affiliation:
Jonas Ljungberg is Professor, Department of Economic History, Lund University, Sweden. E-mail: jonas.ljungberg@ekh.lu.se.

Abstract

This article explores the development of market integration within the Baltic Sea region and with England, from the 1840s to the late 1880s. It exploits two new datasets on grain prices. The degree of market integration is estimated using a wavelet variant of dynamic factor analysis that takes account of both time and distance. Additionally, we use the London corn market as the benchmark for the degree of market integration. Our results show that the role of distance disappeared in the wheat and rye, but not in the oats and barley trade, as the Baltic Sea Region became integrated into the Atlantic economy.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2015 

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Footnotes

We have benefitted from research assistance by Astrid Lieng and comments on earlier versions of this paper by participants at the Baltic Sea session of the XVIth World Economic History Congress, the Swedish 15th Annual Conference on European Integration, the VIth European Historical Economics Society Conference, the 10th BETA workshop in historical economics, and the Lund economic history seminar. We are particularly grateful to Riitta Hjerppe, Agnesziska Chidlow, Lars Jonung, David Edgerton, Jacek Wallusch, Lennart Schön, the two anonymous referees, and the editor of this journal. Remaining flaws are our own. The datasets on Baltic grain prices and London wheat prices are available online at http://www.ekh.lu.se/en/research/economic_history_data.

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