Professor Olivier Accominotti

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Financial History. This course is not available as an outside option.

This course introduces students to the history of the global monetary and financial system. It examines the main changes in the architecture of global finance and in the governance of international monetary affairs from the very early times to the twenty-first century. The course explores the rise of international finance, the origins of financial globalization and de-globalization, and the causes and consequences of global financial instability for both advanced and emerging market economies. The course provides the necessary long-run, historical perspective to understand the most recent developments in the international monetary and financial system and the related policy debate. As part of this course, students will also design and conduct one research project in financial history drawing upon archival sources or historical data. The project will prepare students for their research dissertation.

20 hours of seminars in the AT. 20 hours of seminars in the WT. 2 hours of seminars in the ST.

Students will be expected to produce 2 essays in the AT and WT.

• Eichengreen, B. (2008). Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System. Princeton University Press.
• Eichengreen, B., Mehl, A., & Chitu, L. (2018). How Global Currencies Work. Past, Present and Future. Princeton University Press.
• Neal L. (2015). A concise history of international finance. Cambridge University Press.
• Reinhart C. & Rogoff K. (2009). This Time is Different. Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Princeton University Press.
• Tooze, A. (2018). Crashed: how a decade of financial crises changed the world. Allen Lane.

Exam (80%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.
Project (20%, 3500 words) in the WT.