ECON 2234H1F/423H1F Topics in North American Economic History. Course Outline

Transcription

1 University of Toronto Department of Economics Winter 2011 ECON 2234H1F/423H1F Topics in North American Economic History Course Outline Professor: Gillian Hamilton Office: Max Gluskin House, 150 St. George St., room 310 Phone: Class Hours: Wed 11-1 TC22 Office Hours: Wed 1-2 (or by appointment). Web page: Web management: This course is managed by the university s learning management system: Blackboard. You can access it via a link from my web page (listed above) or through The course outline as well as other handouts, links, announcements et cetera will be available through the Portal (Blackboard). Please check it weekly. Contacting Me: Feel free to come and talk to me during office hours or class time (or you can drop by, but it is safer to make an appointment first). Please note that I teach on the UTM campus on Tuesdays. policy: Please include the course code in the subject of your message. It is also helpful to ensure that your userid or the name that appears as the sender is your actual name and not a nickname. These practices will help ensure that your message does not get stuck in my spam filter and subsequently deleted. To this end it is also best to use your UofT account (e.g. utor). If I do not respond within 48 hours please re-send the message or leave a phone message your original message may not have been received. Course Description This course is a seminar style course with emphasis on discussion, not lecturing. It is topic oriented, with particular attention to the themes of incentives, contracts, and the impetus for change. We study the evolution of various labour market institutions that operated in North America (from indentured servants to slavery; long-term traditional apprenticeships to free labour). We also tackle the evolution of production: from artisan shop to factory production and examine issues of institutions and growth. We begin with a study of indigenous peoples.

2 Prerequisites for undergraduate students: ECO206Y1(70%), ECO227Y1(70%) /(STA257H1[70%],STA261H1[70%]), or permission of the instructor. Evaluation There will be an essay worth 35 percent, three short papers worth 8 percent each, a final examination worth 35 percent and 6 percent for participation in discussions. The term paper grade will consist of 30 percent for the paper and 5 percent for a proposal & presentation. Students will hand in a brief essay proposal and present their proposal to the class, in order to gain feedback and guidance on their essay topic. Short Papers For each short paper (3-4 pages), you will provide an overview of the readings for the week (2 papers). The overview should include (i) a brief summaries of the articles (ii) discussion of sources and empirical methods (iii) suggestions for extensions and improvement (iv) two or three discussion questions to guide class discussion. your papers to me by 9 p.m. on Monday prior to the class covering the material. I will make the papers available to the rest of the class that night. Participants will be divided up so that all of the topics are covered by at least one student. Essay The paper can be on any aspect of economic history. A focus on North America and applied microeconomics is encouraged. It is up to you to define the topic of your paper. You should choose something with a narrow focus a well-defined, specific problem. Your paper should be similar in format to a journal article. It should include a statement of the problem you will address, motivation for why the topic should be of interest to economic historians, a summary of the relevant literature, description of the data, empirical investigation, findings and conclusions. Final Examination The exam will be comprehensive (covering material from the entire term). Previous test questions will be circulated prior to the exam. Important dates: Feb 16: Apr 6: essay proposals & presentations essay due

3 Course Material Most of the required readings can be downloaded from a University of Toronto computer (or one with a proxy library account). I have added links for some of the articles. Almost all can be found on-line. Go to the library website, choose e-resources, choose e-journals, enter the journal name and find the appropriate issue. Here is the e-journals link: Alternatively, click on article finder on the front page of the library website: There is a recommended (not required) course textbook: AP: Atack and Passell, A New Economic View of American History 2 nd edition, WW Norton, If you are unfamiliar with the basic historic experiences we are discussing, you may find it helpful. There are several copies in the library or it can be ordered from the bookstore, amazon or chapters. Abbreviations: denotes required readings; o denotes recommended readings JEH = Journal of Economic History; EEH = Explorations in Economic History AER = American Economic Review; QJE = Quarterly Journal of Economics AP = Atack and Passell (see Course Material, above). 1. Native Americans Week 1 (Jan 12): How well off were Native North Americans? Mancall & Weiss. Was Economic Growth Likely in Colonial British North America JEH 59, no.1 (1999): link Steckel, Richard H and Prince, Joseph M. Tallest in the World: Native Americans of the Great Plains in the Nineteenth Century. American Economic Review, vol. 91, no. 1, March 2001, pp AER Komlos, John. Access to Food and the Biological Standard of Living: Perspectives on the Nutritional Status of Native Americans. American Economic Review, March 2003, Vol 93, No. 1: o Steckel, Richard. Inequality Amidst Nutritional Abundance: Native Americans on the Great Plains. JEH 70, no.2 (June 2010):

4 Dippel, Christian. Forced Coexistence and Economic Development Evidence from Native American Reservations Mimeo, University of Toronto, Week 2 (Jan 19): Natives and depletion Carlos, A. and Frank D. Lewis. "Indians, the Beaver, and the Bay: The Economics of Depletion in the Lands of the Hudson's Bay Company, " Journal of Economic History, 53, no. 3, (1993): link Carlos, Ann M; Lewis, Frank D Property Rights, Competition, and Depletion in the Eighteenth-Century Canadian Fur Trade: The Role of the European Market. Canadian Journal of Economics, vol. 32, no. 3, May 1999, pp CJE o Taylor, Scott M. Buffalo Hunt: International Trade and the Virtual Extinction of the North American Bison. NBER Working Paper No , March o Carlos A. and Frank Lewis, "Trade, Consumption, and the Native Economy: Lessons from York Factory, Hudson Bay" JEH 61, no. 4 (Dec., 2001): link Week 3 (Jan 26): Indentured servants Galenson, David W. (1981). "The Market Evaluation of Human Capital: The Case of Indentured Servitude." Journal of Political Economy 89(3), JPE Grubb, Farley (1985). "The Market for Indentured Immigrants: Evidence on the Efficiency of Forward-Labor Contracting in Philadelphia." JEH 45(4), link Grubb, Farley. Redemptioner Immigration to Pennsylvania: Evidence on Contract Choice and Profitability. JEH (2): link o Grubb, Farley. The Statutory Regulation of Colonial Servitude: An Incomplete-Contract Approach. Explorations in Economic History, vol. 37, no. 1, January 2000, pp EEH o Grubb, Farley. Babes in Bondage? Debt Shifting by German Immigrants in Early America Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Summer 2006: o Abramitzky and Braggion. Migration and Human Capital: Self-selection of Indentured Servants to the Americas. Journal of Economic History, 66, no.4 (Dec 2006): 882- Galenson, David W. (1977), "Immigration and the Colonial Labor System: An Analysis of the Length of Indenture." EEH 14(4), EEH Grubb, Farley (1987), "Colonial Labor Markets and the Length of Indenture: Further Evidence." Comment, EEH 24(1), EEH

5 2. Slavery Week 4 (Feb 2): Slavery (1) The Efficiency Debate Fogel and Engerman. The Relative Efficiency of Slavery: A comparison of Northern and Southern Agriculture in Explorations in Economic History, Spring 1971, 8: EEH o David and Temin Slavery: The Progressive Institution? Journal of Economic History 34 (Sept, 1974): [read ] link o Wright, Gavin. The Efficiency of Slavery: Another Interpretation. AER, no.1 (1979): AER Fogel & Engerman. Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South. AER (June, 1977): AER David, Paul A. and Peter Temin. Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South: Comment. AER, no.1 (1979): AER Fogel, Robert W. and Stanley L. Engerman. Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South: Reply. AER (1980): AER Haskell, Thomas L. Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South: A Reply to Fogel-Engerman. AER, no.1 (1979): AER Schaefer, Donald F. and Mark D. Schmitz. The Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture: A Comment. AER, no.1 (1979): AER (2) Pricing of Slaves: New Orleans o Greenwald, Bruce and Robert Glasspiegel. Adverse Selection in the Market for Slaves, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 98 no.3 (1983): Pritchett, J. and H Freudenberger. A Peculiar Sample: The Selection of Slaves for the New Orleans Market, Journal of Economic History 52 no 1 (1992): link o Komlos, John and Bjorn Alecke. The Economics of Antebellum Slave Heights Reconsidered, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 26 (1996): JIH o Calomiris, Charles and J Pritchett. Preserving Slave Families for Profit: Traders Incentives and Pricing in the New Orleans Slave Market. Journal of Economic History, 69, no.4 (2009):

6 Pritchett, Jonathan and Richard Chamberlain. Selection in the Market for Slaves: New Orleans, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108 no.2 (1993): QJE Pritchett, Jonathan. The Interregional Slave Trade and the Selection of Slaves for the New Orleans Market. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 28 no. 1 (1997): JIH Choo, Eugene and Jean Eid. Interregional Price Differences in the New Orleans Auctions Market for Slaves. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, forthcoming. Link to working paper version. Steckel, Richard. A Peculiar Population: The Nutrition, Health, and Mortality of American Slaves from Childhood to Maturity. Journal of Economic History, vol. 46, no. 3, September 1986, pp link Coelho, Philip R P; McGuire, Robert A. Biology, Diseases, and Economics: An Epidemiological History of Slavery in the American South. Journal of Bioeconomics, vol. 1, no. 2, 1999, pp Steckel, Richard. Diets versus Diseases in the Anthropometrics of Slave Children: A Reply Journal of Economic History, vol. 60, no. 1, March 2000, pp link Week 5 (Feb 9): Slavery (3) Transatlantic Slave Trade Eltis, David & Engerman. The Importance of Slavery and the Slave Trade to Industrializing Britain. Journal of Economic History, 60 (2000): Nunn, Nathan. The Long Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades," Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 123, No. 1, February 2008, pp Week 6 (Feb 16): Paper proposals & presentations 3. The Evolution of Production: From Artisan Shop to the Factory Week 7 (Mar 2): (a) Relative Efficiency of Factory Organization: Sokoloff, Kenneth and Claudia Goldin. "Women, Children, and Industrialization in the Early Republic." JEH 42, No.4 (1982): link o Sokoloff, Kenneth. "Was the Transition from the Artisanal Shop to the Non-Mechanized Factory Associated with Gains in Efficiency?" EEH. no.4 (1984): EEH Bessen, James. Technology and Learning by Factory Workers: The Stretch Out at Lowell JEH (2003): Clark, Gregory. Factory Discipline. Journal of Economic History, vol. 54, no. 1, March 1994, pp link

7 Sokoloff, Kenneth and Claudia Goldin. The Relative Productivity Hypothesis of Industrialization: The American Case QJE 99, No.3 (1984): QJE Sokoloff & Dollar. Agricultural Seasonality and the Organization of Manufacturing in Early Industrial Economies JEH 57, No.2 (1997): link Craig, Lee & Elizabeth Field-Hendrey. Industrialization and the Earnings Gap: Regional and Sectoral Tests of the Goldin-Sokoloff Hypothesis. EEH 30, No.1 (1993): EEH Week 8 (Mar 9): (b) Apprenticeship Hamilton, G. "The Efficiency of the Market for Apprentices in North America: Contract Length and Information." EEH 33, no.4 (1996): EEH Hamilton, G. The Decline of Apprenticeship in North America: Evidence from Montreal. Journal of Economic History 60 (Sept., 2000): Link Wallis, Patrick. Apprenticeship and Training in Pre-modern England. Journal of Economic History, 68 no 3 (Sep 2008). Working paper version. Elbaum, Bernard (1989), "Why Apprenticeship Persisted in Britain but not in the United States." JEH 49(2), Link Hamilton, Gillian. "Enforcement in Apprenticeship Contracts: Were Runaways a Serious Problem? Evidence from Montreal, " JEH 55, no.3 (1995): link Epstein, S. R. Craft Guilds, Apprenticeship, and Technological Change in Preindustrial Europe Journal of Economic History, vol. 58, no. 3, September 1998, pp link Week 9 (Mar 16): (c) Invention Kenneth Sokoloff, Inventive Activity in Early Industrial America: Evidence from Patent Records, , Journal of Economic History, 48 (Dec. 1988): Link Moser, Petra. How Do Patent Laws Influence Innovation? Evidence from Nineteenth Century World Fairs. American Economic Review 95 (4) 2005: AER Week 10 (Mar 23): Diffusion & Impact Richard Pomfret. "The Mechanization of Reaping in Nineteenth-Century Ontario: A Case Study of the Pace and Causes of the Diffusion of Embodied Technical Change. Journal of Economic History 36, no.2 (1976): Link

8 o Olmstead, Alan and Paul Rhode. Beyond the Threshold Journal of Economic History 55, no.1 (March, 1995): link o Olmstead & Rhode. Reshaping the Landscape: The Impact and Diffusion of the Tractor Journal of Economic History 61, no. 3 (2001): Olmstead, Alan. "The Mechanization of Reaping and Mowing in American Agriculture, " Journal of Economic History 35 (1975): link Jones, Lewis. "The Mechanization of Reaping and Mowing in American Agriculture, Comment." Journal of Economic History 37 (1977): link Atack, Bateman, Haines and Margo. Did Railroads Induce or Follow Economic Growth? Urbanization and Population Growth in the American Midwest, Social Science History, The Importance of Institutions Week 11 (Mar 30): a) Constitutions/Legal systems: Douglass North and Barry Weingast. "Constitutions and Commitment: Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice. Journal of Economic History, December (1989): link Avner Greif. Reputation and Coalitions in Medieval Trade: Evidence on the Maghribi Traders The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 49, No. 4. (Dec., 1989), pp link o Rafael La Porta, Legal Determinants of External Finance. Journal of Finance. 52 (July 1997): Avner Greif, Paul Milgrom, and Barry Weingast, 1994, "Coordination, Commitment and Enforcement: The Case of the Merchant Guild," Journal of Political Economy, 102, 4. August. JPE Paul David, "Clio and the Economics of QWERTY," American Economic Review, 75 May 1985, AER Douglass North, "Institutions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1991, 5, JEP Week 12 (Apr 6): (b) Factor Endowments & Geography: Sokoloff, Kenneth L; Engerman, Stanley L Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World. NBER Working Paper, October, (also Economia: Journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association, vol. 3, no. 1, Fall 2002, pp )

9 Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation, American Economic Review, 91 (Dec. 2001): AER o Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117 (Nov. 2002): QJE o Nunn, Nathan. "Slavery, Inequality, and Economic Development in the Americas: An Examination of the Engerman-Sokoloff Hypothesis," forthcoming in E. Helpman (ed.), Institutions and Economic Performance, Harvard University Press, Other stuff: Sokoloff and Engerman. The Evolution of Suffrage Institutions in the New World. JEH 2005 Geddes, Rick & Dean Lueck. The Gains from Self-Ownership and the Expansion of Women s Rights. American Economic Review, vol. 92, no. 4, September 2002, pp AER Gillian Hamilton, "Property Rights and Transaction Costs in Marriage: Evidence from Prenuptial Contracts", Journal of Economic History 59 (1) (1999), Braun and Kvasnicka. Men, Women and the Ballot: Women Suffrage in the United States. Working paper, Garcia-Jimino & Robinson. The Myth of the Frontier (NBER 2009) df Gregory Clark and Gillian C. Hamilton, "Survival of the Richest: The Malthusian Mechanism in Pre- Industrial England", Journal of Economic History 66 (3) (2006), Haines and Hacker. The Puzzle of the Antebellum Fertility Decline in the US: New Evidence & Reconsideration. Working Paper NBER #12571, Ferrie, Joe & Jason Long. Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Britain and the U.S. Since Working paper, 2009.