Professor Gregory Clark
Fall
2006
1137 Social Science
and
Humanities
M,
W 10:00-11:30
752-9242 (
http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/210a/210ahome.html
Office Hours: Mon 1-2,
Th 1-3
& by appointment
ECONOMICS 210A – WORLD ECONOMIC HISTORY
Description
Economics
210A covers topics in World Economic History from the Middle Ages to
the
twentieth century. The
three big issues we examine are the long
persistence of the Malthusian economy to around 1800, the Industrial
Revolution, and the subsequent Great Divergence in world incomes per
capita.
Requirements
There
will be a final exam, in class, Saturday Dec 16, 1:30-3:30 pm. The grade will be 60% for the final and 40%
for a research project. The research
project will be determined in consultation with the instructor.
The
background text for this course is a forthcoming book, A
Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World (Princeton
University Press, 2007). This is
available from Navin’s Copy Shop,
This
text is written at a fairly intuitive level, and should be accessible
to any
intelligent person. The syllabus below
thus lists more technical readings also on each topic.
Required readings are indicated with a *. The
material will be available online though links
on the syllabus at my web page at to either JSTOR or to PDF versions of
the
articles. Those who would like some
background reading should consult one or more of the following volumes.
Carlo
Cipolla, Before the Industrial
Revolution (2 nd ed. 1980, 3 rd ed. 1993)
David
Landes, The Unbound Prometheus
(1969)
David
Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of
Nations (1999)
Rondo
Cameron, A Concise Economic
History of the World.
Joel
Mokyr, The Lever of Riches.
Douglass
North and Robert Thomas, The Rise of the
Western World (1973)
The
following abbreviations are used for journals, working paper series
AER - American
Economic Review
EEH - Explorations
in Economic History
EHR - Economic
History Review
JEH - Journal
of Economic History
JPE - Journal
of Political Economy
QJE - Quarterly
Journal of Economics
NBER -
National
Bureau of Economic Research (www.nber.org)
OUTLINE
AND
I
The Malthusian Economy – the
world to 1800
1. The Logic of the Malthusian Model
*FTA
2.
The Logic of
the Malthusian Economy, 14-38
Malthus, Thomas Robert. 1830. A
Summary View of the Principle of
Population. Aylesbury,
Buckinghamshire: Penguin Books, 1970.
2.
Testing the Malthusian Model – Material
Living Standards
*FTA
3.
Material
Living Standards, 39-76
Allen, Robert C. 2001.
“The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the
Middle Ages
to the First World War.” Explorations
in Economic History, 38(4): 411-448.
Bassino,
Jean-Pascal and Debin Ma. 2005.
“Japanese Wages in International Perspective,
1741-1913.” Research in
Economic History, 23: 229-48.
*Gregory
Clark, “The Long March of History:
Farm Wages, Population and Economic Growth,
*Gregory
Clark, “The Condition of the
Working-Class in
Voth, Hans-Joachim. 2001.
“The Longest Years: New Estimates of Labor Input in
3.
Testing the Malthusian Model – Fertility and
Mortality
*FTA
Macfarlane, Alan. 2003. The Savage Wars of Peace:
Wrigley, E. A., R. S.
Davies, J.
E. Oeppen, and R. S. Schofield.
1997. English
Population History from Family Reconstruction: 1580-1837.
Lee, James Z. and Wang
Feng. 1999. One Quarter of Humanity: Malthusian
Mythology and Chinese Realities, 1700-2000.
4. Survival
of the Richest
*FTA
6.
Malthus and Darwin: Survival of
the Richest
*Chagnon,
Napoleon. 1988. "Life
Histories, Blood Revenge, and
Warfare in a Tribal Population," Science
239:985-92.
*Gregory Clark,
“Survival of the
Richest. The Malthusian Mechanism in
Pre-Industrial
Hadeishi,
Hajime. 2003. “Economic
Well-Being and Fertility in
5. Economic
Change Within the Malthusian Era
*FTA
*Acemoglu,
Daron,
Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson.
2005. “Institutions as the
fundamental cause of long-run growth.”
In Philippe Aghion and Steve Durlauf (eds.), Handbook
of Economic Growth, 385-471.
*Clark,
Gregory and Ysbrand van der Werf.
1999. “Work in Progress.
The Industrious Revolution?” JEH,
830-843.
Crosby,
Alfred W. The Measure of
Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600.
*De Vries, Jan 1994.
“The Industrial
Revolution and the Industrious Revolution” JEH,
249-70.
Galor, Oded and Omer
Moav. 2002.
“Natural Selection and the Origin of Economic Growth.” Quarterly Journal of Economics.
*Rogers, Alan R. 1994.
“Evolution of Time Preference
by Natural Selection,” American
Economic Review, 84(3): 460-81.
*Voth, Joaquim. Time
and Work in
II The Industrial Revolution
1. Modern
Economic Growth
*FTA
9.
Modern Growth: The Wealth of Nations
Easterlin, Richard. 1981.
"Why Isn't the Whole World
Developed?" JEH,
1-21.
*Lucas,
Robert. 1993. "Making a Miracle," Econometrica, 61(2), 251-272.
*Delong,
Brad and Larry Summers. 1991.
"Equipment Investment and
Economic
Growth," QJE, 445-502.
Barro, Robert 1991.
"Economic Growth in a
Cross-Section of Countries,"
QJE, 407-444.
2.
The Transition Between
Regimes - Theory
*FTA
9.
The Problem of the Industrial Revolution
*Becker,
Gary, Kevin Murphy, and Robert Tamura.
1990. “Human Capital, Fertility
and Economic Growth.” JPE,
98: S12-37.
*Clark, Gregory. 2003.
“The Great
Escape: The
Industrial Revolution in Theory and in History” (manuscript)
*Galor,
Oded and David N. Weil. 2000.
“Population, Technology and
Growth: From
Malthusian Stagnation to the Demographic Transition and Beyond.” AER,
90: 806-828.
*Kremer,
Michael. 1993. “Population
Growth and Technological Change:
One Million B. C. to 1990.” QJE,
681-716.
Jones,
Charles I. 1999. “Was
the Industrial Revolution
Inevitable? Economic Growth over the
Very Long Run.” Working Paper #7375, NBER.
Jones, Rhys. 1977.
“The Tasmanian Paradox.” In R. V.
S. Wright (ed.), Stone Tools as Cultural Markers,
Jones, Rhys. 1978.
“Why Did the Tasmanians Stop Eating Fish?” In
R. A. Gould (ed.), Explorations in
Ethnoarchaeology.
Lucas, Robert E. 2002.
“The Industrial Revolution: Past and Future.” In Robert E.
Lucas, Lectures
on Economic Growth.
*North,
Douglass and Barry Weingast. 1989. "Constitutions
and Commitment," JEH,
pp. 803-832.
3.
The Transition Between
Regimes - Facts
*FTA
11.
The Industrial Revolution in
*Mokyr, Joel. 1999,
"Introduction" in Joel Mokyr (ed.), The Industrial
Revolution: An Economic Analysis.
*McCloskey,
Donald. 1981. “1780-1860:
A Survey.” in Floud, R. and D. N.
McCloskey (1981), The Economic History of
McCloskey,
Donald. 1994. "1780-1860: A Survey”
in Floud, R. and D. N. McCloskey (1994), The
Economic
History of
*Temin, Peter. 1997.
“Two Views of the British
Industrial Revolution” JEH,
63-82.
4.
The Social Consequences of
the Industrial Revolution
*FTA
12.
The Social Consequences of the Industrial Revolution
Clark, Gregory and
Marianne Page. 2000. Is
There Profit in Reforming the Poor? The English Poor Law,
1830-1842
Van Zanden, Jan Luiten. 2004.
“The Skill Premium and the Great Divergence.”
Working Paper,
*Lindert, Peter. 2004. Growing
Public: Social Spending and Economic
Growth since the Eighteenth Century, pp. 3-38, 227-263.
5.
Institutions and Economic
Growth – Institutions as Superstructure
*FTA
7.
Technological
Change
*North, Douglass and
R. P.
Thomas. 1973. The Rise of the
Western World, 1-8.
*Clark,
Gregory. 1998. “Commons
Sense: Property Rights, Efficiency
and Institutional Change,” JEH, 1998.
Kantor, Shawn.
1990. "Razorbacks,
Ticky
Cows, and the Closing of the
6.
Institutions as Exogenous
*North,
Douglass and Barry Weingast (1989), "Constitutions and Commitment," JEH, pp. 803-832.
*Clark,
Gregory. 1996. “The
Political Foundations of Modern Economic
Growth:
*Acemoglu,
Daron,
Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson.
2005. “Institutions as the
fundamental cause of long-run growth.”
In Philippe Aghion and Steve Durlauf (eds.), Handbook
of Economic Growth, 385-471.
*Acemoglu, Daron,
James A.
Robinson and Simon Johnson. 2001. “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Economic
Development: An Empirical Investigation,” American
Economic Review, 91: 1369-1401.
*Acemoglu, Daron,
James A.
Robinson and Simon Johnson. 2002. “Reversal of Fortune: Geography and
Institutions in the Making of the Modern World,” Quarterly
Journal of Economics, 117:
1231-1294.
III
The Great Divergence
1.
The Spread of the
Industrial Revolution
*FTA
13.
The Great Divergence – World Economic Growth since 1800
14.
The Proximate Sources of Divergence
15.
Why
Isn’t the Whole World Developed?
Haber,
Stephen. 1989. Industry and
Underdevelopment: The Industrialization of
*Clark,
Gregory. 1987. "Why Isn't the Whole
World Developed? Lessons from the Cotton
Mills," JEH, 141-174.
*Wolcott,
Susan and Gregory Clark. 1999. "Why
Nation’s Fail: Managerial Decisions and Performance in Indian Cotton
Textiles,
1890-1938." JEH, June.
William
Easterly. 2001. The
Elusive Quest For Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in
the
Tropics.
Kremer, Michael. 1993a.
“The O-Ring Theory of Development,” Quarterly
Journal of Economics, 108(3):
551-75.
Economic
History
Seminar – Fall, 2006
Tuesdays,
4.10-5.30, 5th
floor conference room (5214 SSH).
THURSDAY, Sep 28 --
Albrehct Ritschl (Humboldt)
October
17th -- Christina Romer (
October
24th -- Tim Leunig (LSE) -- "Transport improvements, agglomeration
economies and city productivity: did commuter trains raise nineteenth
century
British wages?"
October
31 -- open
November
7th --
November 14th* --
James Simpson (Carlos III) – TBA
(Wine Trade)
November
21st* -- Alexander Klein (
November
28th* -- open
December 5th* -- Ewout
Frankema (