Teaching

Created 8/28/1995
Go to Brad DeLong's Home Page

History--Econ 210a Syllabus

Introduction to Economic History

Brad DeLong and Jan de Vries
Fall Semester 1995; Wednesday 10-12

Readings

30 August (de Vries) Introduction

• Paul David, "Clio and the Economics of QWERTY," American Economic Review (May 1985) 75, pp. 332-37.
• Paul David, "Historical Economics in the Long Run: Some Implications of Path-Dependence," in G.D. Snooks, ed., Historical Analysis in Economics (London, 1993), pp. 29-40.

6 September (de Vries) Population Growth and Economic Change

• Massimo Livi-Bacci, A Concise History of World Population (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), pp. 30-136.
• Peter Passell and Jeremy Atack, "Population Growth and Redistribution," in New Economic History of the United States (New York, 1994), pp. 212-48.

13 September (DeLong) Modern Economic Growth

• Fernand Braudel, The Wheels of Commerce (London: Collins, 1982), "Capital, Capitalist, Capitalism," pp. 231-49.
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, pp. 469-500 of Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader 2nd ed. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1978), pp. 469-500.
• Simon Kuznets, "The Meaning and Measurement of Economic Growth," in Barry Supple, ed., The Experience of Economic Growth (New York: Random House, 1963), pp. 52-67.
• Angus Maddison, Dynamic Forces in Capitalist Development: A Long-Run Comparative View (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 5-84.
• William Nordhaus, "Do Real Output and Real Wage Measures Capture Reality? The History of Lighting Suggests Not" (Yale: Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper 1078, 1994).

20 September (de Vries) Agriculture

• David Grigg, The Dynamics of Agricultural Change (New York: St. Martin's, 1982), Ch. 7, pp. 91-100.
• David Grigg, The Transformation of Agriculture in the West (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), Ch. 2-5, pp. 11-57.
• Jan de Vries, The Economy of Europe in an Age of Crisis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 30-83.
• Gregory Clark, "Labour Productivity in English Agriculture, 1300-1860," in Mark Overton and Bruce M.S. Campbell, eds., Land, Labour, and Livestock (Manchester, 1991), pp. 211-35.
• Robert Allen, "Agriculture during the Industrial Revolution," in Economic History of Britain since 1700, Vol 1, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp.

27 September (de Vries) European Commerce and Foreign Trade

• Karl Marx, "So-Called `Primitive' Capital Accumulation," Capital, vol. I, pt. VIII, chs. 26-32.
• Harry Miskimin, The Economy of Late Renaissance Europe, 1460-1600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), pp. 20-46, 123-54.
• Larry Neal, The Rise of Financial Capitalism: International Capital Markets in the Age of Reason (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1990), pp. 1-43, 118-40.
• Jan de Vries, The Economy of Europe in an Age of Crisis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 113-75.
• N.F.R. Crafts, British Economic Growth during the Industrial Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 141-54.

4 October (de Vries) The Industrial Revolution in Britain

• Jan de Vries, "The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution," Journal of Economic History 54 (1994), pp. 249-70.
• Joel Mokyr, "Introduction," in Mokyr, ed., British Industrial Revolution (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Allanheld, 1985), pp. 1-52.
• N.F.R. Crafts, British Economic Growth during the Industrial Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 1-47, 70-114.

11 October (de Vries) The Shifting Pace of European Industrialization: Technology, Institutions, Policies

• Alexander Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Cambridge: Harvard, 1966), pp. 5-30.
• C. Knick Harley, "Substitution for Prerequisites: Endogenous Institutions and Comparatative Economic History," in R. Sylla and G. Toniolo, eds., Patterns of European Industrialization (London: Routledge, 1991), pp. 29-44.
• Douglas North, Structure and Change in Economic History (New York: Norton, 1981), pp. 158-98.
• N.F.R. Crafts, British Economic Growth during the Industrial Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 48-69.
• Gregory Clark, "Why Isn't the Whole World Developed? Lessons from the Cotton Mills," Journal of Economic History 47 (1987), pp. 141-74.

18 October In-Class Midterm

25 October (DeLong) Growth in the 20th Century

• William Baumol, Sue Ann Beatty Blackmun, and Edward Wolff, Productivity and American Leadership (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1989), pp. 29-64.
• Moses Abramovitz, "Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind," Journal of Economic History (1986), pp. 385-406.
• Mankiw, N. G., D. Romer, and D. N. Weil. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth." Quarterly Journal of Economics 107 (May 1992), pp. 407-37.

1 November (DeLong) International Markets and Institutions

• W. Arthur Lewis, The Evolution of the International Economic Order (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978), pp. 2-25, 38-57.
• Barry Eichengreen, Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), ch. 2, pp. 29-66.
• Stefano Fenoaltea, "International Resource Flows and Construction Movements in the Atlantic Economy: The Kuznets Cycle in Italy, 1861-1913," Journal of Economic History (1988), pp. 606-637.
• Albert Fishlow, "Lessons from the Past: Capital Markets During the Nineteenth Century and the Interwar Period," International Organization (1985), pp. 383-439.

8 November (DeLong) The Very Short "American Century"

• Gavin Wright, "The Origins of American Industrial Success, 1879-1940," American Economic Review 80 (September 1990), pp. 651-68.
• Alfred Chandler, Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1990), pp. 14-89.
• David Mowery, "Finance and Corporate Evolution in Five Industrial Economies, 1900-1950," in Vera Zagmani, ed., Finance and the Enterprise (New York: Academic Press), pp. 91-124.
• Donald McCloskey, "Did Victorian Britain Fail?" Economic History Review 23 (1970), reprinted as pp. 94-110 of Donald McCloskey, Enterprise and Trade in Victorian Britain (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981).
• N.F.R. Crafts, British Economic Growth during the Industrial Revolution (Oxford: Oxford, 1985), pp. 155-77.

15 November (DeLong) Distribution

• Karl Marx, Wage Labor and Capital, pp. 203-217 of Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader 2nd ed. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1978).
• Jeffrey Williamson, Inequality, Poverty, and History (Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1991), pp. 1-35, 67-74, 90-109, 124-145.
• Claudia Goldin and Robert A. Margo, "The Great Compression: The U.S.Wage Structure at Mid-Century," Quarterly Journal of Economics 107 (February 1992), pp. 1-34.
• Lawrence Mishel and Jared Bernstein, The State of Working America (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1994), pp. 25-47, 55-60, 73-81.

22 November (DeLong) The Coming of the Great Depression

• Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (Princeton: Princeton University, 1965), pp. 299-406.
• Barry Eichengreen, Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression (New York: Oxford University, 1992), pp. 3-28.
• Christina Romer, "The Great Crash and the Onset of the Great Depression," Quarterly Journal of Economics (August 1990), pp. 597-624.
• Peter Temin, "The Transmission of the Great Depression," Journal of Economic Perspectives 7:2 (Spring 1993), pp. 87-102.
• J.M. Keynes, Essays in Persuasion (New York: Norton, 1963), pp. 118-134 ("A Program of Expansion").

29 November (DeLong) Depression and Recovery

• Barry Eichengreen and Jeffrey Sachs, "Exchange Rates and Economic Recovery in the 1930s," Journal of Economic History 45 (1985), pp. 925-46.
• Barry Eichengreen and Timothy Hatton, "Introduction and Overview," in Barry Eichengreen and Timothy Hatton, eds., Interwar Unemployment in International Perspective (Boston: Kluwer, 1988), pp. 1-50.
• Robert Margo, "Interwar Unemployment in the United States: Evidence from the 1940 Census Sample," in Barry Eichengreen and Timothy Hatton, eds., Interwar Unemployment in International Perspective (Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988), PP. 325-352.
• George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (London: HBJ, 1958), pp. 21-35, 75-118.
• J.M. Keynes, Essays in Persuasion (New York: Norton, 1963), pp. 135-147 ("The Great Slump of 1930"), 168-181 ("The Consequences to the Banks of the Collapse of Money Values").
• Barry Eichengreen, Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), ch.13., pp. 390-400.

4 December Paper Due

6 December (DeLong) The Post-World War II Growth Miracle

• Dowrick, S., and D.-T. Nguyen. "OECD Comparative Economic Growth 1950-85: Catch-Up and Convergence." American Economic Review 79 (December 1989): 1010-30.
• Barry Eichengreen and Brad DeLong, "The Marshall Plan Considered as a Structural Adjustment Program," in Dornbusch, Layard, and Nolling, eds., Postwar Economic Reconstruction and Lessons for the East Today (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1993), pp. 189-230.
• The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy (Washington: the World Bank, 1993), pp. 27-104.
• J.M. Keynes, Essays in Persuasion (New York: Norton, 1963), pp. 358-373 ("Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren").

14 December Final Exam

Teaching

Created 8/28/1995
Go to Brad DeLong's Home Page

Associate Professor of Economics Brad De Long, 601 Evans
University of California at Berkeley; Berkeley, CA 94720-3880
(510) 643-4027 phone (510) 642-6615 fax
delong@econ.berkeley.edu
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/ ÿ