HISTORY AND CURRENT PUBLIC ECONOMICS (Ec 565, MA level)

  • Issues in history are investigated using the tools and the point of view of economics. The emphasis is on the process of history and causality in the evolution of events. The main part of the course is on the interactions between the state and economics. 
  • An important tool will be the web site of the course. Some pages will be posted before the beginning of the course. 
  • The requirement for the course is a love for history and a strong desire to try to make some sense of it, using the tools of economics.t

OFFICE HOURS: Wednesday 3:30-630 pm, room 401, department of economics.

chamley@bu.edu

Syllabus

1. Beginnings (Mesopotamia and Egypt) Slides 1

2. Rise of the state in Europe  Slides 2a, Slides 2b

  • Hoffman, Philip, T. (2012). "Why was it Europe that conquered the world," JEH, 72(3),601-633.
  • Elias, Norbert (1939, and later editions). The Civilizing Process. Excerpts.
  • Harris (see syllabus)

3. (9/16) Assignment:

Readings:

  • Angelucci, Charles, Simone Meraglia, Nico Voigtländer. 2022. “How Merchant Towns Shaped Parliaments: From the Norman Conquest of England to the Great Reform Act,” American Economic Review, 112(10), 3441-3487.
  • Cox, Gary, W., Mark Dincecco and Massiliano Gaetano Oronato (2024). “Window of Opportunity: War and the Origin of Parliament,” British Journal of Political Science, 54(2), 405-421.

Assignment

  1. In CDO, read first only the abstract. Write a one paragraph (max 10 line) on what you expect the paper to do. Use only what we have seen so far in class. Do not use any other source of information.
  2. After writing the previous paragraph (and do not change it), read the rest of the intro. Summarize (max 20 lines), and comment on whether you are surprised, whether you agree or not.
  3. In the section "Empirical Predictions", what is the implication of the first "prediction" for Figure 1? (You can jump to the figure without reading the text in between)
  4. Do you understand the second "prediction" in that paragraph?
  5. Read the abstract of AMV. Is there a difference with CDO?
  6. Consider Figure 1 in AMV. Make sure that you understand well the definitions of the boroughs on the top left. For this, consult the text before the figure. You don't have to read the entire text (you may...), but make sure you understand these definitions. I will explain the econometrics, but experience has shown that an essential requirement for the understanding of empirical studies is a clear mind about the definition of the data. (You don't have to examine how this data is constructed, but in some cases, it may help).