From: Brad DeLong
To: UCB Econ 1 Spring 2012 students
Subject: Discussion Questions for Dasgupta, "Economics: A Very Short Introduction": Macroeconomic History
- In the long sweep of human history, is Becky very lucky, lucky, unlucky, or very unlucky?
- In the long sweep of human history, is Desta very lucky, lucky, unlucky, or very unlucky?
- How much richer is the world today than it was in the long centuries from 5000 BC to 1800?
- How much richer are the world's rich today than the world's poor today?
- What would count as an explanation of this divergence across space and time--that is, what kinds of things would count as "causes" and make you happy that you understood what was going on?
- How many useful "hierarchies of causation" can you imagine here?
