Enterprising America: Business, Banks, and Credit Markets in Historical Perspective.

The NBER held a conference on "Enterprising America: Business, Banks, and Credit Markets in Historical Perspective" in Nashville on December 14, 2013. NBER Research Associates William Collins of Vanderbilt University and Robert Margo of Boston University organized the meeting. The following papers were discussed:

* Naomi Lamoreaux, Yale University and NBER, "Revisiting American Exceptionalism: Business Organizational Forms and Corporate Governance in Comparative Perspective"

* Eric Hilt, Wellesley College and NBER, "Corporate Governance and the Development of Manufacturing Enterprises in Nineteenth-century Massachusetts"

* Robert Margo, "Economies of Scale in Nineteenth Century American Manufacturing Revisited: A Resolution of the Entrepreneurial Labor Input Problem" (NBER Working Paper No. 19147)

* Alan Olmstead, University of California, Davis, and Paul Rhode, University of Michigan and NBER, "Were Antebellum Cotton Plantations Factories in the Field?"

* Howard...