I posted recently about economic history in 2016 and said
that I would have another post that focused on American Economic History. Here
it is. Again, 2016 is loosely defined for the purposes of this blogpost, though I think most of the stuff here was published or presented in some way during the year. Also,
please do not think that this is intended as an objective list of the best or
most important work. This is more like a list of things that came to my
attention and will influence what I teach my students in American Economic
History.
Measuring Income and
Inequality
This book did not get nearly as much
attention as Robert Gordons’ book, but it is far more important for American economic
history. There are a lot of reasons why this is an important book. It provides the
most up to date picture of long term economic development in America, and it
provides a model for economic historians of careful use of primary sources, making
the most of the limited sources available.
Some of the findings:
1.
The U.S. was
among the most developed nations very early on.
2.
The
Revolution had a large negative effect on incomes.
3.
The relative
decline of the South began long before the Civil War.
4.
There is no
fundamental law driving inequality. Instead, inequality has risen and fallen
over time in response to a changes in demographics, finance, technological
change, politics, education policy, and trade.
See also Lindert, Peter H., and Jeffrey G. Williamson.
"American colonial incomes, 1650–1774." The Economic History
Review 69.1 (2016): 54-77, which shows that “The common view that American per
capita income did not overtake that of Britain until the start of the twentieth
century appears to be off the mark by two centuries or more.”
Race, Racism, and the
Effects of Slavery
Marcella Alsan and
Marrianne Wanamaker.
"Tuskegee and the Health of Black Men." (2016) used survey data on
mistrust of doctors, data on health care utilization, and mortality to show
that the Tuskegee experiments had a significant negative effect on the health
of older African American men.
See also Celeste K. Carruthers, and Marianne H.
Wanamaker. Separate and unequal in the labor market: human capital and
the Jim crow wage gap. No. w21947. National Bureau of Economic Research,
2016 on the effect of unequal eduction on skills and wages.
John
Parman,
Trevon Logan,
and
Lisa D. Cook used
census records in innovative ways to answer questions about segregation and the
consequences of distinctively black names. Many of their working papers are
available at their websites.
Logan, Trevon, and John Parman. The national rise in
residential segregation. No. w20934. National Bureau of Economic Research,
found that “The likelihood that an African American household had a non-African
American neighbor declined by more than 15 percentage points (more than a 25%
decrease) through the mid-twentieth century.” Using this measure of segregation,
they also find that higher levels of segregation were associated with an
increase in lynching (go to Parman’s website for a link to this paper.)
Lisa Cook, Trevon D. Logan, and John M. Parman. "The
mortality consequences of distinctively black names."
Explorations
in Economic History 59 (2016): 114-125 see
Vox for a
summary of this work. They found that distinctively black names raised male life
expectancy by about 4 years. “One possible explanation lies in the nature of
those historical black names. They often draw on biblical names or denote
empowerment. Coupled with evidence that names were often passed from father to
son, these name characteristics suggest that those with a distinctively black
name may have stronger family, church, or community ties. These stronger social
networks could help an individual weather negative shocks throughout life,
ultimately leading to far better long-term outcomes, as demonstrated in Cook
(2011, 2012).”
Evolution of Institutions,
Organizations and Markets
Several economic historians are using the North,
Wallis and Weingast (transition to open access order) framework to explain the
evolution of institutions, especially those governing business organization and
finance, in early America.
Economic History and the History of Capitalism
