Prof Albrecht Ritschl and Prof Christopher Minns

This course is available on the MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research) and MSc in Global Economic History (Erasmus Mundus). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Students enrolled for this course are expected to have completed at least introductory undergraduate courses in statistics and/or econometrics and economic theory. The course will begin with a revision of the main quantitative approaches but will not provide a comprehensive training in econometric methods or computer applications.

Please note that EH426 can not be taken with EH422.

The course will provide an overview of quantitative approaches in economic history mainly using cross-section and panel data. The course will examine the use of quantitative techniques through practical exercises and critical discussion of their application in recent literature.  Techniques discussed will include multiple regression analysis, regression diagnostics, instrumental variables, limited dependent variables, sample selection corrections, and panel data analysis. The course is organised on a topic basis, with subjects chosen to illustrate particular theoretical, quantitative and methodological issues.s.

20 hours of seminars in the MT.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy

An individual presentation and a reading report.

There is no mandatory textbook for this course, but the brief overview of quantitative methods during the first four weeks will follow Wooldridge, J.M. (2009), Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach, International Student Edition. Useful background readings include J.L. Van Zanden, The Long Road to the Industrial Revolution: The European Economy in a Global Perspective, 1000-1800 (Leiden, 2009); K.H. O'Rourke and J.G. Williamson, Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Economy (Cambridge MA, 1998); C. Goldin and L.F. Katz, The race between education and technology (Cambridge, MA, 2008); D. Greasley and L. Oxley (eds.), Economics and History: Surveys in Cliometrics (Oxford, 2011).6).

Essay (70%, 3000 words) in the LT.
Presentation (30%) in the MT.

The summative essay is expected to modify, extend or criticise existing research in the literature. The presentation will cover work other than the subject matter of the essays and will be given in class during the MT.

Survey questions on feedback to students may be non-informative because assessed work comes later in the term than the survey.