Economic History is the application of the tools of economics to historical enquiry. This course will start with an introduction to this discipline, and then survey the literature on some of its major topics.

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 have a solid working knowledge of applied econometrics (at the “Mostly Harmless Econometrics”-level), should be willing to read and to refresh their historical background knowledge. For assessment every participant will deliver a short presentation of a paper to kick off the class discussion.

For those who have never taken an economic history course, one of the below titles – all are good reads and definitely worth your time over the summer – 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.

See syllabus