Prof Leigh Gardner SAR 505 and Dr Anne Ruderman SAR 506

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research), MSc in Global Economic History (Erasmus Mundus) and MSc in Political Economy of Late Development. This course is available on the MPhil/PhD in Economic History. This course is not available as an outside option.

The course provides an overview of the central themes and key theoretical questions in economic history and examines the ways in which economic historians collect, analyse and interpret evidence. Specific topics evolve to reflect recent research trends, but include a range of issues such as processes of economic development; culture and economic behaviour; the role of institutions; and welfare outcomes.  The course approaches these topics by considering problems of knowledge and explanation in economic history, and introduces quantitative and qualitative approaches to obtaining, analysing, and interpreting evidence.  Lectures pair conceptual and theoretical reviews with historical case studies illustrating applied research on these topics.

 

20 hours of lectures and 9 hours of seminars in the AT.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours across Autumn Term. 

This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Students are expected to write one essay or equivalent pieces of written work during the term.

D. North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance (1990): A. Greif, Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy (2006); K. Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy (2000); R. Allen, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective (2009); D Rodrik (Ed), In Search of Prosperity (2003); E. Helpman, The Mystery of Economic Growth (2004); T Rawski (Ed), Economics and the Historian (1996); J. Tosh, The Pursuit of History (2nd Edition, 1991); D. Little, Varieties of Social Explanation (1991); Leah Boustan, Philip Ager and Katherine Eriksson "The Intergeneration Effects of a Large Wealth Shock: White Southerners after the Civil War", American Economic Review, 2021; Claudia Goldiin, "A Grand Gender Convergence: Its Last Chapter", American Economic Review, 104, no.4 (2014): 1091-1119.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the January exam period.