ECONOMICS 210A – WORLD ECONOMIC HISTORY
Professor
Gregory
Clark
Fall 2012
1137
Social
Science and Humanities
M, W 8:00-9:30
gclark@ucdavis.edu
Young 192
http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/210a/210ahome.html
Office
Hours: W,
F 1:00-2:30
Description
Economics 210A covers World Economic History from the
Stone Age to the twentieth century. The 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 midterm in class, Mon. Nov 5, and a final exam, Tuesday,
Dec. 11, 3:30-5:30p. The grade will be 30% for the midterm,
60% for the final, and 10% for class participation.
The background text for this course is my book,
A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World (Princeton
University Press, 2007). This is available from the
bookstore, or more cheaply from Amazon. My web site has links to a bunch of reviews of the book,
with some responses by me.
This book is written at a fairly intuitive
level. The syllabus below thus lists more technical
readings also on each topic. Required readings are
indicated with a *. The material is available online
though links on the syllabus to either JSTOR or to PDF versions
of the articles.
The
following abbreviations are used for journals, working paper
series
AER
-
American Economic Review
EEH
-
Explorations in Economic History
HER
-
Economic History Review
EREH -
European Review of Economic History
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
till 1800
1. The Logic of the Malthusian Model
*FTA, Chapters 1-2.
*Symposium
on A Farewell to Alms,
European Review of
Economic History, August 2008.
Maddison,
Angus.
2007. Contours of the World
Economy, 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History.
Clark, Gregory.
2009. “Review
Essay:
Angus Maddison, Contours
of the World Economy, 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic
History.” JEH,
2009.
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, Chapter 3
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, England 1209-1869,” Economic History Review, 2007.
*Gregory Clark, “The Condition of the Working-Class in
England, 1209-2004” Journal of Political Economy, 113(6)
(December, 2005): 1307-1340.
Voth, Hans-Joachim. 2001. “The
Longest Years: New Estimates of Labor Input in
3. Malthus versus "the Revolt
of the Early Modernists": European growth 1200-1800
Broadberry et al., 2010. “British Economic Growth, 1270-1870.”
*De Vries, Jan 1994. “The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious
Revolution” JEH, 249-70.
De Vries, Jan.
2008. The Industrious
Revolution.
*Clark, Gregory and Ysbrand van der Werf.
1999. “Work in Progress. The Industrious
Revolution?” JEH, 830-843.
Clark, Gregory.
2010. “1381
and the Malthusian Delusion.”
EEH, forthcoming, 2013
Clark, Gregory, Joseph Cummins, and Brock
Smith. 2010. “Malthus, Wages, and
Pre-Industrial Growth” JEH 2012
Clark, Gregory. 2010. “The Consumer
Revolution: Turning Point in Human History, or Statistical
Artifact?”
Clark, Gregory.
2011. “Major
Growth or Malthusian Stagnation?
Farming in England 1209-1869”
4. Testing the Malthusian Model –
Fertility and Mortality
*FTA, Chapters 4-5
*Weisdorf,
Jacob and Marc Klemp. 2012. ‘The Lasting Damage to Mortality of
Early-Life Adversity: Evidence from England's Famine of the
Late 1720's” European Review of Economic History (forthcoming).
Jones,
Larry E. and Michele Tertilt. 2006. “An Economic History of
Fertility in the
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.
5. Survival of the Richest
*FTA, Chapter 6
*Chagnon, Napoleon. 1988. "Life Histories, Blood Revenge, and Warfare in
a Tribal Population," Science 239:985-92.
*Gregory Clark and Gillian Hamilton. 2006 “Survival
of the Richest. The Malthusian Mechanism in
Pre-Industrial England.” JEH, 66(3).
*Weisdorf, Jacob, Nina Boberg-Fazlic, and Paul
Sharp. 2011. ‘Survival of the Richest? Social Status,
Fertility, and Social Mobility in England 1541-1824’ European
Review of Economic History, 15:3:
365-392.
Carol Shiue.
2008. Human Capital and Fertility in Chinese Clans.
Diego
Comin, William Easterly, Erick Gong. 2008. Was
the Wealth of Nations Determined in 1000 BC?”
6. Economic Change Within the
Malthusian Era
*FTA, Chapters 7
Joel Mokyr, The Lever of Riches (1990)
Kremer,
Michael.
1993. “Population
Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990.”
Quarterly Journal of Economics 108 : 681-716.
7. Institutions
and Economic Growth
*FTA, Chapter
8.
*Bill Easterly. 2008. Institutions, Top Down or Bottom Up? AER,
May.
(1) *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 Georgia Open Range: The Dynamics of Institutional Change
Uncovered," JEH, v. 51, n. 4, (Dec): 861-86
(2)*North, Douglass and Barry Weingast (1989),
"Constitutions and Commitment," JEH, pp. 803-832.
*Clark, Gregory. 1996. “The Political Foundations of Modern Economic
Growth: England, 1540-1800,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 26
(Spring).
*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.
Acemoglu,
Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson. 2005. “The Rise
of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change and Economic
Growth.” AER
*Clark,
Gregory. 2007. “A
Review of Avner Greif’s, Institutions and the Path
to the Modern Economy.”
Journal of Economic Literature.
*Greif,
Avner, Paul Milgrom, and Barry Weingast. 1994. “Coordination,
Commitment
and Enforcement: The Case of the Merchant Guild.”
Journal of Political Economy 102 : 745-776.
8. The
Emergence of Modern Man
*FTA, Chapter 9
*van Zanden, Jan Luiten.
2009. The Long Road to the Industrial Revolution. Chapters
1, 5.
Crosby, Alfred W. The Measure of
Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600.
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, Chapter 10
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, Chapter 11
*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, Chapter 12-13
*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 Britain since 1700 (2 nd ed),
Vol. I, 242-270.
*Temin, Peter. 1997. “Two Views of the British Industrial
Revolution” JEH, 63-82.
*Clark, Gregory. 2007. What Made Britannia Great?
*Clark, Gregory and Neil Cummins. 2008. Malthus
to Modernity: Income, Fertility and Economic Growth in
4. The Social Consequences of the Industrial Revolution
*FTA, chapter 14
Allen, Robert C.
2009. “Engels’
pause: Technical change, capital accumulation, and
inequality in the British Industrial Revolution.” EEH
*Lindert, Peter. 2004. Growing Public: Social Spending and
Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century, pp. 3-38, 227-263.
Goldin, Claudia and
Larry Katz. 2008. The
Race between Education and Technology
Waldenström,
Daniel,
Jesper Roine and Jonas Vlachos.
2009 "The
Long-Run
Determinants of Inequality: What Can We Learn from Top Income
Data?", Journal
of Public Economics
Clark, Gregory and Marianne Page.
2008. Welfare Reform, 1834
Van Zanden, Jan Luiten. 2004.
“The Skill Premium and the Great Divergence.” Working
Paper, University of Utrecht.
5. Social
Mobility
*Becker,
Gary and Nigel Tomes. 1986. “Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families.” Journal of Labor
Economics, 4(3): S1-S39.
*Bowles,
S. and H. Gintis. 2002. “The Inheritance of Inequality”
Journal of Economic
Perspectives. Volume 16, Number 3,
*Clark, Gregory and
Neil Cummins. 2012. “What is the
True Rate of Social Mobility?
Surnames and Social Mobility in England, 1800-2011”
*Clark,
Gregory. 2012. “Social Mobility in
Sweden, 1670-2012. A
Surname Study.”
Galton,
Francis 1886. "Regression Towards
Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature". Journal of the
Anthropological
Herrnstein,
Richard
J. and Charles Murray. 1996. The
III The Great Divergence
1. The Spread of the Industrial
Revolution
*FTA, chapters 15-18
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.
*Clark, Gregory.
2009. “Manufacturing
Growth: What is the path to prosperity in Africa?
*Wolcott, Susan and Gregory Clark. 1999.
"Why Nations Fail: Managerial Decisions and
Performance in Indian Cotton Textiles, 1890-1938." JEH.
*Peter
Zeitz (2011) "Do
Local Institutions Affect All Foreign Direct Investors in the
Same Way? Evidence from the Interwar Chinese Textile Industry"
Allen, Robert C.
2011. “Technology
and
the great divergence: Global economic development since 1820” EEH.
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.
Sachs,
Jeffrey D. 2003. “Institutions
Don't Rule: Direct Effects of Geography on Per Capita Income.” NBER
Working Paper No. 9490.