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In this chapter, I consider the benefits of viewing history through an evolutionary lens. In recent decades, a field of … to explain the history of human societies. I then turn to a discussion of how an evolutionary perspective provides …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012481254
In this paper we trace the evolution of the lender of last resort doctrine--and its implementation--from the nineteenth century through the panic of 2008. We find that typically the most influential economists "fight the last war": formulating policy guidelines that would have dealt effectively...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012457834
Like today, one hundred years ago air pollution was a matter of grave concern in the world's most polluted cities. In the wake of its famous 1908-9 social survey, the City of Pittsburgh commissioned an "Economic Survey of Pittsburgh" from John T. Holdsworth, a prominent institutional economist...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014528368
The history of the twentieth century can be summarized excessively briefly in five propositions: First, that the … history of the twentieth century was overwhelmingly economic history. Second, that the twentieth century saw the material … were the most brutal and barbaric in history. Fourth, that the twentieth century saw the relative economic gulf between …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012471206
What can macroeconomic history offer macroeconomic theorists and macroeconometricians? Macroeconomic history offers … `path dependence': ways in which the cumulative past, including the history of shocks and their effects, change the … structure of the economy. This essay reviews American macroeconomic history to illustrate its potential uses and draw out …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012473969
We discuss business cycles in ancient China. Data on Ancient China business cycles are sparse and incomplete and so our discussion is qualitative rather than quantitative. Essentially, ancient debates focused on two types of cycles: long run political or dynastic cycles of many decades, and...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012456997
David Ricardo initially believed machinery would help workers but revised his opinion, likely based on the impact of automation in the textile industry. Despite cotton textiles becoming one of the largest sectors in the British economy, real wages for cotton weavers did not rise for decades. As...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014544695
The use of historical data has become a standard tool in economics, serving three main purposes: to examine the influence of the past on current economic outcomes; to use unique natural experiments to test modern economic theories; and to use modern economic theories to refine our understanding...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012482187
more sophisticated identification techniques, have moved beyond testing whether history matters, and attempt to identify … exactly why history matters. The most commonly examined channels include: institutions, culture, knowledge and technology, and …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012463749
Scholars have attempted to explain geographic clustering in inventive activity by arguing that it is connected with clustering in production or new investment. They have offered three possible reasons for this link: because invention occurs as a result of learning by doing; because new...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012472886