Tagged: Economic History

Cause and effect: ancient trade and development - The Dismal Science

Paul Walker • Sep 26, 2013 •

• Economic History,
• trade

In a previous post on the history of globalisation I quoted from Elhanan Helpman's book Understanding Global Trade. With regard to long-distance trade Helpman noted just how ancient trade is, While long-distance trade plays an essential role in modern economies, it was also a salient feature of economic development after the Neolithic Revolution, as hunter-gatherers evolved into sedentary … Read More

When did globalisation start? - The Dismal Science

Paul Walker • Sep 24, 2013 •

• Economic History,
• globalisation

A good question. But is there a good answer? The Free Exchange blog at the Economist website has asked this question and as part of their answer they write, However, economic historians reckon the question of whether the benefits of globalisation outweigh the downsides is more complicated than this. For them, the answer depends on … Read More

Is technological progress history? - The Dismal Science

Paul Walker • Sep 10, 2013 •

• Economic History,
• innovation

When it comes to technological progress and thus economic growth some of the most important questions being asked include, Has technological progress slowed down? Have we really picked all the low-hanging fruit? A new column by Joel Mokyr at VoxEU.org argues that technological progress is in fact not a thing of the past. Far from it. There … Read More

Isn’t Economic History grand - The Dismal Science

Matt Nolan • Aug 09, 2013 •

• Economic History,
• Monetary economics

The discussion about Milton Friedman going on at the moment is great fun – with a bunch of people discussing whether Friedman was Keynesian and what this even means. It Continue Reading → … Read More

Robert Fogel: Nobel Laureate for economics, dies at 86 - The Dismal Science

Paul Walker • Jun 13, 2013 •

• Economic History,
• Fogel

Bloomberg.com is reporting the death of the economic historian Robert Fogel. Laurence Arnold writes, Robert Fogel, the University of Chicago economic historian awarded a Nobel Prize for his data-driven reconsiderations of how railways and slavery influenced U.S. economic history, has died. He was 86. and The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Fogel and Douglass North … Read More

Are real Austrian economists neoclassical? - The Dismal Science

Matt Nolan • Sep 12, 2012 •

• Economic History,
• Sciblogs

According to this lovely post, the answer is yes (ht Economist’s View).  Choice quote: Does Davidson know what a neoclassical policy is? Does Boettke? Does anyone? I don’t think so, because neoclassical economics, as such, has no policy agenda. But whatever a neoclassical policy might be, Davidson assures us that Hayek is totally against it. [...] … Read More