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Development and Inequality in the Long Run (ECO-AD-DEVINEQ)

ECO-AD-DEVINEQ

Purpose

This course is a brief introduction to economic history – the application of the tools of economics to historical inquiry. After introducing the discipline, we will survey the literature on 5 of economic history’s major topics, focussing on long-run phenomena. Some of the questions this course will address are:

What was the economic impact of the Black Death?
Why did Western Europe become the most prosperous region in the world from around 1500, while it had been an economic backwater for many centuries?
Was the Protestant Reformation good for economic development?
What are the deep historical roots of economic inequality?
Why did the Industrial Revolution come about in England?

Participants should be willing to read and refresh their historical background knowledge. For assessment, every participant will deliver a short presentation, summarising an assigned paper and situating it in its debate to kick off the class discussion.

For those who have never with economic history, one of the below titles – all are good reads and definitely worth your time – will get you started with this discipline:

Diamond, J., 1999. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies. W.W. Norton & Co., New York.

Landes, D., 1998. Wealth And Poverty Of Nations. Norton, New York.

North, D.C., 1981. Structure and Change in Economic History. Norton, New York.

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