The course starts with what is known in the literature as “The Great Divergence”, determined by the take off of the European economy in the late Middle Ages and focuses on the institutions that made it possible. It then discusses the creation of the basic pillars of market economies, through the first and second industrial revolutions, the introduction of the gold standard and the birth of varieties of capitalism. Economic growth has never been a smooth process and it had to cope with wars and crises, which will be analysed in their economic, social and political implications. The features of the only State organisation – USSR – which challenged the market economy will be specifically addressed. The final part of the course will be devoted to an assessment of the process of “The Great Convergence” involving the third and fourth industrial revolutions, financialization and globalization. The present "polycrisis" will finally be addressed as well as the present geopolitical challenges. Conclusions will discuss which institutional changes our long-run analysis recommends to overcome the present disequilibria.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS 

The course requires a final research paper (at least 6000 words) on a topic to be agreed upon with the teacher, who will supply additional bibliographical indications. Each student must also engage in preparing a short in class intervention on one of the topics of the course, to enliven in class discussions.

Students should have acquired basic concepts of micro-macro economics (no mathematics necessary), or have permission of the instructor.

vzamagn1@jh.edu  vera.negri@unibo.it

Vera Zamagni, An economic history of Europe since 1700, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Agenda, 2017 (VZ)
Antipa, V. Bignon, “Whither Economic History? Between narratives and quantification”, Revue de l’OFCE, 157, 2018

Attendance 5%: participation to in class discussions also through the preparation of a short in class intervention 15%; final paper of at least 6000 words, 80%.

A=Outstanding, A-=Excellent, B+=Very Good, B=Good, B-=Pass, C+=Low Pass, C=Minimal Pass, D=Failure.  

       *The starred items are suggested readings

1. The strategic role of Institutions. A comparison of institutions in the three main agro-commercial areas of the world XIV-XVI centuries

*VZ, ch.1

North, D, Understanding the process of economic change, Princeton UP, 2005

*Greif, A. Institutions and the path to the modern economy, CUP, 2006, Conclusions

* Prados L., C.V. Rodriguez-Caballero, "War, pandemics and modern economic growth in Europe", Explorations in Economic History, 86, 2022, pp.1-11

Greif, A. Coercion and Exchange: how did markets evolve, 2008, https://web.stanford.edu/~avner/Greif_Papers/2008%20Coercion%20and%20Exchange.%20How%20did%20Markets%20Evolve.pdf

de la Croix, D and  M. Doepke, J. Mokyr, Clans, guilds, apprenticeship institutions and growth in the pre-industrial economy, UCL Discussion Paper 2016-9, March 2016.

Bisin, A.  J. Rubin et Al., Culture, institutions and the long run divergence, Chapman University, ESI WP 1-2021, January 2021

Cox, G. W. “Political institutions, economic liberty and the great divergence”, JEH, 77, n.3, Sept. 2017, pp. 724-755.

de la Croix et al., The Academic Market and the rise of Universities in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (1000-1800), University of Basel WWZ WP 2022/4, April 2022

van Bavel, B. and A. Rijpma, “How important were formalized charity and social spending before the rise of the welfare state? A long run analysis of selected Western European cases 1400-1850”, EH1saR, 69, 2016, pp. 159-187.

2. The Great Divergence of Europe and why was Britain first in industrializing

*VZ, ch. 2-3

*Broadberry, S. Accounting for the great divergence. Recent findings from Historical national accounts, Oxford Economic and Social History WP, n. 187, March 2021

Mokyr J., G. Tabellini, Social Organization and political institutions. Why China and Europe diverged, Cesifo WP 10405, May 2023

*Vries, P. State economy and the great divergence. Great Britain and China, 1680s-1850s, Bloomsberry, 2015, Conclusions

Pamuk, S. and J.G. Williamson, “Ottoman de-industrialization 1800-1913: assessing the magnitude, impact and response”, EHR, 64, 2011, pp. 159-184

Parthasarathi, P. Why Europe grew rich and Asia did not, 1600-1850, CUP, 2011. Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511993398

Kuran, T. The long divergence. How Islamic law held back the Middle East; Princeton UP, 2011 Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Febookcentral.proquest.com%2Flib%2Fjhu%2Fdetail.action%3FdocID%3D590832

Broadberry, S. et al., British economic growth 1270-1870, CUP, 2015 Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1017%2FCBO9781107707603

McCloskey, D. Bourgeois dignity: why economics can’t explain the modern world, Chicago University Press, 2010 Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Febookcentral.proquest.com%2Flib%2Fjhu%2Fdetail.action%3FdocID%3D616048

3. The process of imitation of the first industrial revolution in Europe and Japan. The varieties of capitalism

*VZ, ch. 4-5

*Nelson, R.R. “The complex economic organization of capitalist economies”, Capitalism and Society, 6, 2011, article 2.

Fouquet R., S. Broadberry, "Seven centuries of European growth and decline", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29, 2015, pp. 227-244.

Reinert, E. S. “The role of the State in economic growth”, Journal of Economic Studies, 199, 26, pp. 268-326.

Hancke, B. Debating varieties of capitalism. A reader, OUP, 2009

M. Morys, "Was Eastern Europe always lagging behind the West? Historical evidence from pre-1870", Review of Income and Wealth, 68, april 2022, pp. 1-21

Bassino, J.P., S. Broadberry et Al., Japan and the great divergence 730-1874, Warwick WP n. 325, April 2017

Flath, D. The Japanese economy, OUP, 2022 4th ed. Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1093%2Foso%2F9780192865342.001.0001

4. The rise of USA and the second industrial revolution

*VZ ch. 6 and 7.1, 7.2

*Chandler, A.D. Scale and Scope, Harvard UP, 1990, part 1

Porter, G.  The rise of big business. 1860-1920, Blackwell, 2005

Gordon, R.J. The rise and fall of American growth, Princeton UP, 2016, part 1. Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=http%3A%2F%2Febookcentral.proquest.com%2Flib%2Fjhu%2Fdetail.action%3FdocID%3D4987197

5. The creation of an international economy and the gold standard

*VZ, ch. 8

Eichengreen, B. Globalizing capital: a history of the international monetary system, 3rd ed. Princeton UP, 2019 Available online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F10.2307%2Fj.ctvd58rxg

*Flandreau,M., F. Zumer, The making of global finance 1880-1913, OECD, 2004. Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1787%2F9789264015364-en

Fisher, M.H. Migration. A world history, OUP, 2014, ch. 4-5

Haas, L., K.R. Schenk Hoppé, International trade: smarten up to talk the talk, MPRA paper n. 99096, March 2020

Findlay, R., K. O’Rourke, Power and plenty. Trade, war and the world economy in the second millennium, Princeton UP, 2007, ch. 7-8. Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F10.2307%2Fj.ctv6zdc8p

Waites, B., Europe and the Third World. From colonization to decolonization, c.1500-1998, Palgrave, 1999.

6. World War I and its devastating impact on Europe, with special reference to the birth of Soviet Union
   

*VZ, ch 9 and 10

*Broadberry, S., M. Harrison, The economics of world war I, CUP, 2005, Chapter 1, "The Economics of WWI: an overview", pp. 3-40. Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511497339

Sharp, A., The Paris conference and its consequences, International Encyclopaedia of the First Word War, online, updated 2022 https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/the_paris_peace_conference_and_its_consequences

Overy, R., The inter-war crisis 1919-1939, Pearson, 2016, 3rd ed. Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Febookcentral.proquest.com%2Flib%2Fjhu%2Fdetail.action%3FdocID%3D4595010

Nas, T., Tracing the economic transformation of Turkey from the 1920s to the EU accession, Brill Njhoff, 2008 Available online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1163%2Fej.9789004167926.i-199

Allen, R.C., Farm to factory: a reinterpretation of the Soviet revolution, Princeton UP, 2003, ch. 1 and 10. Also online:http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmuse.jhu.edu%2Fbook%2F84561%2F

Davies, R.W., M. Harrison, S.G. Wheatcroft (eds.), The economic transformation of Soviet Union, CUP, 1994. Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139170680

*Harrison, M.,  Foundations of the Soviet command economy, 1917-1941, ESRC, WP 283, March 2016. Available online: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/mharrison/public/cambridge_communism_postprint.pdf

 7. The 1929 crisis and its aftermath to WWII

*VZ, ch. 11-12

*Eichengreen, B., “The origins and nature of the great slump revisited”, EHR, 1992, pp. 213-39

Temin, P., Lessons from the great depression, MIT Press, 1989

Field, A., A great leap forward: 1930s Depression and US economic growth, Yale UP, 2011

Harrison, M. (ed.), The economics of World War II: six great powers in international comparison, CUP, 1998, ch. 1. Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/the-economics-of-world-war-ii/043CE9F3DC5036A731E5555C4A84E424

 8. The birth of a New International Economic Order, European economic integration and the golden age

*VZ, ch. 13 and 15

Milward, A., Reconstruction of Western Europe 1945-51, 1984

*Temin, P., “The golden age of European growth reconsidered”, EREH, 2002, pp. 3-22.

Eichengreen, B., The European economy since 1945, Princeton UP, 2007 Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2Fj.ctt7rpfs

Shuka, S.P., From GATT to WTO and Beyond, UN Wider, WP n. 195, August 2000.

Reinhart, C.M., C. Trebesch, The IMF. 70 years of reinvention, Munich Discussion Paper n. 2015-19, December 2015.

 9. The return of instability: The third industrial revolution, globalization and financialization.

*VZ, 14.3-14.5, 16.3

Palley, T.I., “Three globalizations, not two: rethinking the history and economics of trade and globalization”, European Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, 208, 15, pp. 174-192.

Dodig, N., E. Hein, D. Detzer, Financialization and the financial and economic crises. Theoretical framework and empirical analysis for 15 countries, Econstor WP. N. 54/2015, 2015

Langlois, R. Disintermediation: the rise of the personal computer and the internet in the late XX century, University of Connecticut WP, 2021-12, July 2012.


       10. New imitators and the great convergence: the rise of Asia beyond Japan, the rest of the World

*VZ, 16.2, 16.4

Hill, H., Reflections on Asia’s journey to prosperity, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University WP n. 202/18, August 2020

Brandt, L., D. Ma, T.G. Rawski, “From divergence to convergence. Revaluating the history behind China’s economic boom”, Journal of Economic Literature, 2014, pp. 45-123.

Yueh, L., China’s growth. The making of an economic superpower, OUP, 2013 Available online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1093%2Facprof%3Aoso%2F9780199205783.001.0001

Naughton, B., The Chinese economy, MIT Press, 2018, 2nd ed. Also online: http://proxy.library.jhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebscohost.com%2Flogin.aspx%3Fdirect%3Dtrue%26scope%3Dsite%26db%3Dnlebk%26AN%3D2517939

IMF, World economic outlook, April 2023.

      11. Polycrisis 1: climate change and finance

*VZ, ch. 17

The New Climate War, The fight to take back our Planet, Public Affairs Book, 2021

G. Thunberg, The Climate Book, Allen Lane, 2022

N. Eliades, "A short history of COPs", Ecologist, Sept. 2021

Krugman, P., The return of depression economics and the crisis of 2008, Norton, 2009

Zamagni, S., “The lessons and warnings of a crisis foretold. A political economy approach”, International Review of Economics, 2009, 56, 3, pp. 315-334.

J. Pisani-Ferry, The Euro crisis and its aftermath, OUP, 2014 Also online: https://doi-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199993338.001.0001

     12. Polycrisis 2: Covid19 and the Ukrainian war

"The 2021 Report of the Lancet Count down on health and climate change: code red for a healthy future", Lancet, Dec. 2021

Krastev I., Is it tomorrow yet? Paradoxes of the pandemic, Penguin 2022

Plokhy S.,  The Russo-Ukrainian War. The Return of History, Norton, 2023


     13. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, geopolitics and the new institutional challenges. Conclusions.

Schwab K et Al., Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum, 2018

Mollick. E., Co-intelligence: living and working with AI, Portfolio Penguin, 2024

Acemoglu, D., G. Egorov, K, Sonin, Institutional change and institutional persistence, Becker Friedman Institute WO n. 2020/127, September 2020.

Kanbur, R., Past, present and future of International organizations seen through the lens of Bretton Woods and the World Bank, Cornell AEP, WP n. 2021/12, August 2021

Bengtsson, E., D. Waldenstrom, “Capital shares and income inequality. Evidence from the long run”, JEH, 78, Sept. 2018, pp. 712-743.

Irarràzaval, A., The fiscal origins of comparative inequality levels: an empirical and historical investigation, LSE WP n. 314, November 2020

Balliester, T., A. Elsheikhi, The future of work: a literature review, ILO WP, n. 29, March 2018.