Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T16:11:55.552Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pre- and post-famine indices of Irish equity prices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

CHARLES R. HICKSON  and
JOHN D. TURNER
CHARLES R. HICKSON
Affiliation:
School of Management and Economics, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

The market for company stock in Ireland entered its formative period in the mid 1820s with the incorporation of banks and railways. Using data obtained from stockbroker lists, we estimate market capitalisation and construct weighted and unweighted monthly stock market indices for the period 1825–64. Our findings show that the market appears to have been relatively unaffected by the Famine. We suggest that an efficient-market explanation may better explain this finding than a dual-economy explanation. Our findings also show that the stock market increased significantly in value in the post-Famine period. This finding is consistent with an increase in demand for financial assets as well as the rapid commercialisation of the Irish economy.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review of Economic History , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , April 2008 , pp. 3 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barro, R. J. (1990). The stock market and investment. Review of Financial Studies 3, pp. 115–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrow, G. L. (1975). The Emergence of the Irish Banking System, 1820–1845. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.Google Scholar
Clapham, J. (1944). The Bank of England: A History. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crosserley, H. C. (1974). Outline of Irish Railway History. London: David and Charles.Google Scholar
Cullen, L. M. (1972). An Economic History of Ireland Since 1660. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd.Google Scholar
Fama, E. F. (1990). Stock returns, expected returns, and real activity. Journal of Finance 45, pp. 1089–1108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortune, P. (1998). A primer on US stock price indices. New England Economic Review Nov./Dec., pp. 25–40.Google Scholar
Gayer, A. D., Jacobson, A. and Finkelstein, I. (1940). British share prices, 1811–1850. Review of Economic Statistics 22, pp. 78–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gayer, A. D., Rostow, W. W. and Jacobson Schwartz, A. (1953). The Growth and Fluctuation of the British Economy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Grossman, R. S. (2002). New indices of British equity prices, 1870–1913. Journal of Economic History 62, pp. 121–46.Google Scholar
Guinnane, T. W. (1994). The Great Irish Famine and population: the long view. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 84, pp. 303–8.Google Scholar
Hall, F. G. (1949). The Bank of Ireland, 1783–1946. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis & Co.Google Scholar
Hancock, W. N. (1863). Report on the Supposed Progressive Decline of Irish Prosperity. Dublin: Alexander Thom.Google Scholar
Hatton, T. J. and Williamson, J. G. (1993). After the Famine: emigration from Ireland. Journal of Economic History 53, pp. 575–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hickson, C. R. and Turner, J. D. (2003). Trading in the shares of unlimited liability banks in nineteenth century Ireland: the Bagehot hypothesis. Journal of Economic History 63, pp. 931–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hickson, C. R. and Turner, J. D. (2005). The rise and decline of the Irish stock market, 1865–1913. European Review of Economic History 9, pp. 3–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hickson, C. R., Turner, J. D. and McCann, C. (2005). Much ado about nothing: the introduction of limited liability and the market for nineteenth-century Irish bank stock. Explorations in Economic History 42, pp. 459–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffreys, J. B. (1977). Business Organisation in Great Britain 1856–1914. New York: Arno Press.Google Scholar
Knox, W. J. (1965). Decades of the Ulster Bank, 1836–1964. Belfast: Ulster Bank Ltd.Google Scholar
Kostal, R. W. (1994) Law and English Railway Capitalism, 1825–1875. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Kraakman, R. R., Davies, P., Hansmann, H., Hetig, G., Hopt, K. J., Kanda, H. and Rock, E. B. (2004). The Anatomy of Corporate Law: A Comparative and Functional Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, J. (1968). The provision of capital for early Irish railways, 1830–53. Irish Historical Studies 16, pp. 33–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewin, H. G. (1968). The Railway Mania and its Aftermath. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.Google Scholar
Lynch, P. and Vaizey, J. (1960). Guinness's Brewery in the Irish Economy, 1759–1876. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, W. C. (1916). A critique of index numbers of the prices of stocks. Journal of Political Economy 24, pp. 625–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mokyr, J. (1985). Why Ireland Starved: A Quantitative and Analytical History of the Irish Economy, 1800–1850. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
O'Brien, G. (1921). The Economic History of Ireland from the Union to the Famine. London: Longmans, Green and Co.Google Scholar
O'Donoghue, J., Goulding, L. and Allen, G. (2004). Composite price index, 1750–2003. Economic Trends 604, pp. 38–46Google Scholar
Ó Gráda, C. (1993). Ireland Before and After the Famine: Explorations in Economic History, 1800–1925. 2nd edn. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Ó Gráda, C. (1994). Ireland: A New Economic History. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
O'Rourke, K. (1991). Did the Great Irish Famine matter? Journal of Economic History 51, pp.1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ollerenshaw, P. (1987). Banking in Nineteenth Century Ireland: The Belfast Banks, 1825–1914. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Ollerenshaw, P. (1988). Aspects of bank lending in post-Famine Ireland. In Mitchison, R. and Roebuck, P. (eds.), Economy and Society in Scotland and Ireland, 1500–1939. Edinburgh: John Donald.Google Scholar
Schwert, G. W. (1990a). Stock returns and real activity: a century of evidence. Journal of Finance 45, pp. 1237–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwert, G. W. (1990b). Indexes of U.S. stock prices from 1802 to 1987. Journal of Business 63, pp. 399–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, N. (1975). The Belfast Bank 1827–1970. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, W. A. (1986). The Stock Exchanges of Ireland. Liverpool: Francis Cairns.Google Scholar
Thomas, W. A. (1987). The evolution of a capital market: the case of Ireland. Journal of European Economic History 16, pp.527–60.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. G. (1994). Economic convergence: placing post-famine Ireland in comparative perspective. Irish Economic and Social History 21, pp. 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar