Topics; the lectures in economic history and inequality

Lectures:  Topics in economic history and inequality,

kalle Moene, Autumn 2017  

August 23 Overview -- basic questions and approaches

  • Why are some countries so rich and other so poor
  • Class divisions and geographical cleavages
  • The classical economists – inequality and development

Heilbronner, Ch. 1-4, Allen, Ch. 1-3; Neal  & Cameron, Ch. 6-7

 

August 30 The first Escapes from the Malthusian trap

  • Malthusian dynamics
  • Black Death and other Plagues
  • Make War not Love

 

Voigtlander and Voth. Gifts of Mars Warfare and Europe's early rise to riches. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27(4):165{186, 2013a 

Voigtlander and Voth. Malthusian dynamism and the rise of europe: make war, not love. The American Economic Review, 99(2):248{254, 2009

Allen ch 2; Neal & Cameron, Ch. 4-5

 

September 6 The Initial Accumulation and the industrial revolution

  • Enclosure Movement
  • Colonies
  • What was The Industrial Revolution
  • Why Europe and not China?
  • Why Britain?

 

Allen ch 2 and 3, Neal ch 7, Allen ‘’The industrial revolution in miniature..’’,   

September 13 Social and Economic Implications of the Industrial Revolution

  • From Cottages to Factories
  • Wages, Effort, and  Destitution
  • Machines and the political economy of the Luddites  
  • The Making of the Working Class and the rise Unions

 

Allen ch 4-5, Neal and Cameron ch 8,  , Allen ‘’The industrial revolution in miniature..’’,   

 

The Slave Trade and Slavery 

 

The Rise and Fall of the Great Empires

 

The Americas

  • Why so much Inequality

 

Africa

  • Why always so Poor  

 

The World Crisis

  • Why?
  • Implications: Authoritarian Regimes versus Social Reforms

 

The Rise of the Welfare State

  • The Great Compression
  • Europe

 

The Long Run Developments of Inequality

  • Farms to Factories
  • The Kuznets Curve in Historical Perspective—
  • Top Incomes

 

The Rise (and Fall?) of Equality in Small Open Economies 

Published Aug. 29, 2017 10:34 AM - Last modified Aug. 29, 2017 10:34 AM