This is a blog about economics, history, law and other things that interest me.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Koyama on the History Manifesto
Mark Koyama reviews the History Manifesto. In it he mentions Pseudoerasmus' post on the many errors in the book.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
The rise and fall of economic history
Peter Temin describes the rise and fall of economic history
at MIT in the History of
Political Economy and an un-gated version here.
Temin also talks about the costs of not
having actual economic historians, even if you do have people who write about
history.
MIT isn’t the only place to experience a rise and fall of
economic history. My grad school (for my econ Ph. D.) has pretty much completely turned its back on
economic history. When I was there we had Douglass North, John Nye, and, for
the last year or so, Sukoo Kim. There was a well-attended history lunch every
week. Doug retired. John went to George Mason. Soks is still there, but my
understanding is that he is not very involved in the economics department.
History is not listed as a field for graduate students. The economists that
replaced the economic historians have demonstrated the potential problems
associated with model makers using the past without consideration for the
historians concerns with context and source criticism. Boldrin and Levine use
the example of James Watt to argue against patents. On the actual influence of
Watt’s patent see Selgin and Turner “Strong
Steam, Weak Patents” JLE 2011 or Bottomley’s British
Patent system During the Industrial Revolution.
My wife’s grad school
also moved away from economic history. While she was doing her graduate work at
Illinois they had Jeremy Atack, Larry Neal, Lee Alston, and Charles Calomiris.
Now, if they have an economic historian, I don’t know who it is.
Fortunately, it is also possible to name departments where
economic history is either on the rise or holding its position, with multiple
economic historians and consistent production of good Ph. D. students. UC
Davis, Yale, Vanderbilt, George Mason, and Northwestern are some of the schools
that come to mind. My apologies to the other good schools I did not mention.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Bankruptcy
Juan Sanchez of the St. Louis Fed looks at recent bankruptcies and concludes that
"BAPCPA clearly had an impact on the number of bankruptcies being filed. However, the exact impact may not be known for some time, since the recession hit right after the BAPCPA was implemented."
I agree that it is going to be difficult to determine the impact of BAPCPA (Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act) . Consumer bankruptcy is usually the end of a series of events: debt, default, and non-bankruptcy collection. There are a many things besides the bankruptcy law that play a role in the process.
Also from the St Louis Fed is this discussion of a symposium on the balance sheets of American families.
Friday, February 20, 2015
The Gold Standard
Here is my favorite gold standard political cartoon from an 1896 Harper's Weekly.
The cartoon shows godlbugs as widows, orphans and veterans. In other words, people living on fixed incomes. It reflects the view that the primary benefit of a gold standard was to place a constraint on the money supply.
However, from the St Louis Fed on U.S. economic performance under the gold standard from the St. Louis Fed: "the historical evidence indicates that neither a gold standard nor the absence of a central bank guarantees economic or financial stability."
Thursday, February 19, 2015
The end of capitalism?
Jeremy Rifkin says the end of
capitalism is coming. In the meantime, he will tell you about it for only $20,000 to $40,000.
History of Capitalism at the Legatum Institute
The Legatum Institute has a program on the History of Capitalism.
They are sponsoring a series of lectures, which are available online.
This one is Nicholas Crafts explaining why England was first to industrialize.
They are sponsoring a series of lectures, which are available online.
This one is Nicholas Crafts explaining why England was first to industrialize.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Bailyn, Wood and American History
I was a bit surprised when Wood suggested that historians
had not liked the Barbarous Years. I quickly looked at the reviews in AHR and
JAH. They weren’t really too negative. Archer thought that the book was “a marvelous
accomplishment and a testament to Bailyn’s standing as one of our finest
historians.” Pulsipher declared that it was the “kind of book that the word “magisterial”
was made for.”
I’m not sure to what extent Bailyn is regarded as an
economic historian, but his early work appeared in the Journal of Economic History and Explorations
in Entrepreneurial History as well as The
New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century .
Here is some more recent work on New
England merchants and credit by David Flynn and Jeremy Schwartz
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)