ECONOMIC HISTORY
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
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- Bibliography
- Teaching methods
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Knowledge of the general features and of the major processes of European and international political history from the late Middle Age to the present.
Written mid-term and final exam, both made of a test (10 points) and of open questions (20 points), on the textbook, readings and the lectures’ slides.
Knowledge of the economic and socio-political processes and of the determinants of European economic growth in the long run, as tools for the understanding of contemporary economic phenomena and policies, especially as development issues and inequality are concerned.
The course explores the economic and socio-political processes and the determinants of European economic growth in the long run. It especially underlines the interplay between the development of institutions and the generation and diffusion of knowledge-based technologies. By analysing the evolutions and the structural changes occurred in the European economies from the Middle Age to the present, it offers important tools for the understanding of contemporary economic phenomena and policies, especially as development issues and inequality are concerned.
SYLLABUS:
• The making of Europe; advantages and limits of the division of labour
• Population, economic growth and resource constraints
• Institutions and growth
• Early modern economic systems; the nature and extent of economic growth in the pre-industrial era
• Industrial revolutions and modern economic growth; knowledge, technology transfer and convergence
• The evolution of money; the emergence of credit and banking systems
• Trade, tariffs and economic growth
• The evolution of international monetary regimes
• The economic role of the state; from lassaiz-faire to the welfare state
• Inequality among and within nations
• The globalization processes
K.G. Persson, An Economic History of Europe. Knowledge, Institutions and Growth, 600 to the Present, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
C.P. Kindleberger, Economic Law and Economic History, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989, ch. 3 and 4, pp. 43-92.
C.M. Cipolla, Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000-1700, London, Routledge, 1993, ch. 9, ch. 10 pp. 182-84 and 194-214.
Lectures in class (40 hrs)
Lectures’ slides and other materials (articles, data, video-clips)are available to students on the e-learning platform.