Economic History of North America

Transcription

1 Economic History of North America Prof. Lee J. Alston Econ 8534 Fall MW 10:30-11 :45 Office Hours MF 2:00-3:00 Econ Room (IBS) (Econ) COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course explores the economic history of the United States. Its purpose is to expose students to economic history as a method of economic analysis and to examine the main features of America's economic growth and development. The course will require extensive input from the students. Considerable emphasis will be placed on participation in discussions and a demonstration of the mastering of the tools of economic history in evaluating materials in class and completing a research paper. Knowledge of standard analytical tools and empirical techniques of micro and macro-economics is strongly recommended. Two useful reference books for the course are:jeremy Atack and Peter Passell A New Economic View of American History from Colonial Times to nd Ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1994); and Jonathan Hughes and Louis Cain. American Economic History. For Hughes and Cain, you do not need the latest edition. These books will be helpful for you to gain an overview of economic history as well as citations for your possible research papers. WEEKLY POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS: For every session of reading except the first, half of the class will prepare brief PowerPoint presentations in which they critically evaluate 2-3 of the assigned readings for the week, providing 1) an overview of the topic, 2) a critique of the sources and methods, 3) a description of the key results (including important tables and figures from the source materials), and 4) suggestions for extension and improvement, to guide our conversation about the topic. Students should divide the readings among themselves so that all selections are covered by at least one student. Required Readings: The papers for the course will be posted on my webpage. Components of Grade: Class Participation 30% Four Power Point Presentations of Readings 30% Paper - First Draft/Presentation 20% Paper - Second Draft 20%

2 Class Schedule: Aug 22 Aug 24 & 29 Introduction I. Methods and Materials of Economic History 1Alston, Lee J. The Case for Case Studies in the New Institutional Economics in New Institutional Economics: A Guidebook edited by Jean-Michel Glachant and Eric Brousseau. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2008). 2. Alston, Lee J. The New Institutional Economics in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics edited by Steven Durlauf and Lawrence Blume. ( 2007) London: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. 3. Jonathan Hughes, Fact and Theory in Economic History, Explorations in Entrepreneurial History (1966). 4. Robert Fogel, Circumstantial Evidence in Scientific and Traditional History, in Carr, et al. (eds.), Philosophy of History and Contemporary Historiography (1982). 5. Robert Fogel, The Specification Problem in Economic History, Journal of Economic History (1967). 6. Donald McCloskey, Does the Past Have Useful Economics?, Journal of Economic Literature (1976). 7. Donald McCloskey, The Problem of Audience in Historical Economics: Robert Fogel as Rhetor, in McCloskey, The Rhetoric of Economics (1985), pp August 31 & Sept 7 II. Land and Instiutions in the Colonial and Early National Periods 1.Alston, Lee J., and Morton Schapiro. "Inheritance Laws Across Colonies: Causes and Consequences," Journal of Economic History, XLIV (June 1984): McGuire, Robert. The Founding Era in Fishback, et. al. Government and the American Economy, (2007). 3. Sonia Mattal, Jack N. Rakove and Barry R. Weingast, The Constitutional Choices of 1787 and their Consequences in Founding Choices, edited by Douglas A. Irwin and Richard Sylla Heckelman, Jac and Keith Dougherty. An Economic Interpretation of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 Revisited. Journal of Economic History (December 2007): Farley Grubb, U.S. Land Policy: Founding Choices and Outcomes, in Founding Choices, edited by Douglas A. Irwin and Richard Sylla Gary Libecap and Dean Lueck, The Demarcation of Land and the Role of Coordinating Institutions

3 Sept 12 & 14 III. Migration to America 1. David W. Galenson, The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis, Journal of Economic History (1984). 2. Farley Grubb, The Market for Indentured Immigrants: Evidence on the Efficiency of Forward-Labor Contracting in Philadelphia, , Journal of Economic History (1985). 3. Ran Abramitzky and Fabio Braggion, Migration and Human Capital: Self-Selection of Indentured Servants to the Americas, Journal of Economic History (2006). 4. Timothy Hatton and Jeffrey Williamson, Cycles, Swings, and Shocks, Chapter 4 in Hatton and Williamson, The Age of Mass Migration (1998). 5. Joseph Ferrie, The Entry into the U.S. Labor Market of Antebellum European Immigrants, , Explorations in Economic History (1997). 6. Claudia Goldin, The Political Economy of Immigration Restriction in the United States, 1890 to 1921, in Goldin and Libecap (eds.), The Regulated Economy (1994). Sept 19 & 21 IV. Slavery 1. Stanley Engerman and Robert Margo Free Labor and Slave Labor in Founding Choices, edited by Douglas A. Irwin and Richard Sylla Robert Fogel, Without Consent or Contract (1989), Ch 3, 4, & Afterword. 3. Fenoltea, Stefano. The Slavery Debate: A Note from the Sidelines. Explorations in Economic History 18 (1981): Stefano Fenoaltea, "Slavery and Supervision in Comparative Perspective: A Model," Journal of Economic History 44 (1984): Alan Olmstead and Paul Rhode Slave Productivity in Cotton Production by Gender, Age, Season, and Scale. Working Paper. November. 6. Richard Steckel, A Peculiar Population: The Nutrition, Health, and Mortality of American Slaves from Childhood to Maturity, Journal of Economic History (1986). Sept 26 &28 V. Tenancy, Coerced Labor, and Debt Peonage 1.Lee J. Alston and Robert Higgs Contractual Mix in Southern Agriculture Since the Civil War: Fact, Hypotheses, and Tests. Journal of Economic History (June 1982): ). 2. Lee J. Alston and Kyle Kauffmann. Agricultural Chutes and Ladders," JEH June Lee J. Alston, and Kyle Kauffman. Were Postbellum Agricultural Labor Markets Competitive? Explorations in Economic History 38, Number 1 (January 2001): Roger Ransom and Richard Sutch. Credit Merchandising in the Post-Emancipation South:Structure, Conduct, and Performance. Explorations in Economic History, Price Fishback, Debt Peonage in Postbellum Georgia. Explorations in Economic History, Lee J. Alston, Shannon Mattiace, and Tomas Nonnenmacher. Coercion, Culture and Debt-Contracts: The Henequen Industry: Yucatán, Mexico, Journal of Economic History: March 2009:

4 Oct 3 & 5 VI. Technological Change and Economic Growth 1. Paul David, The Mechanization of Reaping in the Ante-Bellum Midwest, in Fogel & Engerman (eds.), The Reinterpretation of American Economic History (1971). 2. Alan Olmstead, The Mechanization of Reaping and Mowing in American Agriculture, , Journal of Economic History (1975). 3. Robert Fogel, Notes on the Social Savings Controversy. Journal of Economic History (1985).39: Paul David, Clio and the Economics of QWERTY, American Economic Review 75 (May 1985): S. J. Liebowitz, and Stephen Margolis, The Fable of the Keys, Journal of Law and Economics; 33 (April 1990), pp Lee J. Alston and Paul L. Robertson. "Technological Choice and the Organization of Work in Capitalist Firms," Economic History Review, XLV (May 1992): Oct 10 & 12 VII. Property Rights to Resources 1.Mark T. Kanazawa, Mark T Possession in Nine Points of the Law: The Political Economy of Early Land Disposal, Explorations in Economic History 33: Gary D. Libecap, The Assignment of Property Rights on the Western Frontier: Lessons for Contemporary Environmental and Resource Policy Journal of Economic History. 67, 2(May 2007): Lee Alston, Edwyna, Harris and Bernardo Mueller, De Facto and De Jure Property Rights: Land Settlement and Land Conflict on the Australian, Brazilian and U.S. Frontiers, Working Paper Lee Alston, Gary Libecap and Robert Schneider, "The Determinants and Impact of Property Rights: Census Data and Survey Results for Land Titles on the Brazilian Frontier" Journal of Law, Economics and Organization (1996): Robert Higgs, "Legally Induced Technical Regress in the Washington Salmon Fishery." In Empirical Studies in Institutional Change, edited by L. Alston, T. Eggertson, and D. North, New York: Cambridge University Press, Gary Libecap, Institutional Path Dependence in Climate Adaptation: Coman s Some Unsettled Problems of Irrigation American Economic Review 2011

5 Oct 17 and 19 VIII. Early Business Organizations/Corporations and Corruptionn 1.Eric Hilt, "When Did Ownership Separate from Control? Corporate Governance in the Early-Nineteenth Century." Journal of Economic History, 68(3), Daniel B. Klein, and John Majewski, "Economy, Community and the Law: the Turnpike Movement in New York." Law & Society Review, 26(3), Eric Hilt, "Incentives in Corporations: Evidence from the American Whaling Industry," Journal of Law and Economics, 49(1), Howard Bodenhorn, Partnership Law and Credit Availability. NBER working paper #16689 (January 2011). 5. Naomi Lamoreaux, and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, Corporate Governance and the Plight of Minority Shareholders in the United States before the Great Depression, in Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America s Economic History, ed. Edward L. Glaeser and Claudia Goldin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), pp Lee Alston, Jeffery Jenkins and Tomas Nonnenmacher. Who Should Govern Congress? Access to Power and the Salary Grab of 1873, Journal of Economic History: September Oct 24 and 26 IX Regulation 1.Tomas Nonnenmacher, "State Promotion and Regulation of the Telegraph Industry, " Journal of Economic History March 2001, Pp Werner Troesken "The Institutional Antecedents of State Utility Regulation: The Chicago Gas Industry, , in Goldin and LIbecap (eds). The Regulated Economy: A Historical Approach to Political Economy, Gary D. Libecap, Gary D. The Rise of the Chicago Packers and the Origins of Meat Inspection and Antitrust. Economic Inquiry 30, no. 2 (1992): Alan Olmstead, Alan and Paul Rhode. The Tuberculosis Cattle Trust : Disease Contagion in an Era of Regulatory Uncertainty. Journal of Economic History, 64 (December 2004): RichardSicotte, "Economic Crisis and Political Response: ThePolitical Economy of the Shipping Act of Journal of Economic History December Lee Alston,, Ruth Dupre, and Tomas Nonnenmacher. Social Reformers and Regulation: The Prohibition of Cigarettes in the U.S. and Canada. Explorations in Economic History, 39 (October 2002):

6 Oct 31 and Nov 2 X The Great Depression and the New Deal 1. Michael Bordo et al. The Great Depression and the American Economy in the 20 th Century (1998) in Bordo, Goldin, and White, ed. The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century, NBER, University of Chicago Press, Christina Romer, "The Nation in Depression," JEP (Spring 1993): pp John Wallis and Wallace Oates, The Impact of the New Deal on American Federalism, in Bordo, Goldin, and White, ed. The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century, NBER, University of Chicago Press, Basile, Peter G, John Landon-Lane and Hugh Rockoff, Money and Interest Rates in the U.S. During the Great Depression, NBER Working Paper 16204, July Lee Alston, "Farm Foreclosure Moratorium Legislation: A Lesson from the Past," American Economic Review, 74 (June 1984): Robert Fleck, Robert Voter Influence and Big Policy Change: The Positive Political Economy of the New Deal. Journal of Political Economy: Nov 7 & 9 XI Innovation 1.B. Zorina Khan, Legal traditions, intellectual property and technological innovation, in Douglas Irwin and Richard Sylla (eds), Founding Choices: American Economic Policy in the 1790s, NBER and University of Chicago. 2. B. Zorina Khan and Kenneth L. Sokoloff, Institutions and Technological Innovation During Early Economic Growth: Evidence from the Great Inventors of the United States, , in Institutions and Economic Growth, (eds) Theo Eicher and Cecilia Garcia- Penalosa, MIT Press (2006): Naomi R. Lamoreaux, Margaret Levenstein, and Kenneth L. Sokoloff, Financing Invention during the Second Industrial Revolution: Cleveland, Ohio, , in Financing Innovation in the United States, ed. Lamoreaux and Sokoloff. 4. Petra Moser, How Do Patent Laws Influence Innovation? Evidence from Nineteenth- Century World Fairs, The American Economic Review, Volume 95, Number 4, September 2005, pp Petra Moser and Alessandra Voena, Compulsory Licensing: Evidence from the Trading with the Enemy Act American Economic Review, Petra Moser, Alessandra Voena, and Fabian Waldinger, How Much Did German Jewihs Emigres Benefit U.S. Invention? Working Paper 2011.

7 Nov 14 & 16 XI. The Growth of the U.S. Government and World War II 1.Robert Higgs, "Crisis, Bigger Government, and Ideological Change: Two Hypotheses on the Ratchet Phenomenon," EEH (Jan. 1985). 2. Robert Higgs "Wartime Prosperity? A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in the 1940s," Journal of Economic History 52 (March): Robert Higgs From Central Planning to the Market: The American Transition, Journal of Economic History 59 (September): Alexander Field, The Impact of the Second World War on U.S. Productivity Growth. Economic History Review 61: Robert Higgs, "The Cold War Economy: Opportunity Costs, Ideology, and the Politics of Crisis," Explorations in Economic History 31 (July): Lee J. Alston and Joseph P. Ferrie, Paternalism in Agricultural Labor Contracts in the U.S. South: Implications for the Growth of the Welfare State," American Economic Review (September 1993): Nov 28 & 30 Student Presentations Dec 5& 7 Student Presentations