Readings:
- Evsey Domar (1970), "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis," Journal of Economic History, pp. 18-32 http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001447.html
- Stanley Engerman and Kenneth Sokoloff (1994), "Factor Endowments, Institutions and Differential Paths of Development Among New World Economies: A View from Economic Historians of the United States" (Cambridge: NBER Working Paper no. h0066) http://papers.nber.org/papers/h0066.pdf
- Richard Easterlin (1981), "Why Isn't the Whole World Developed?"_ Journal of Economic History_ 41:1 (March), pp. 1-19
- Susan Wolcott and Gregory Clark (1999). "Why Nation's Fail: Managerial Decisions and Performance in Indian Cotton Textiles, 1890-1938." Journal of Economic History, June http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507%28199906%2959%3A2%3C397%3AWNFMDA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9
- Lant Pritchett, "Divergence, Big Time," Journal of Economic Perspectives (Summer 1997), pp. 3-17, http://uclibs.org/PID/1011
Writing Assignment:
The economic history of the world over the past two centuries has been one in which the world has shrunken enormously in distance along every conceivable measurement, and yet in which income and productivity differences between societies have grown enormously. What are the big-picture theories for explaining this phenomenon that you think are worth further investigation?
Additional and Very Optional Readings:
- N. Gregory Mankiw, David Romer, and David N. Weil (1992), "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 107, No. 2 http://www.uac.pt/~amenezes/macroeconomiaII/macroeconomiaII_20062007/papers/mrw1992.pdf
- Douglas Irwin (1998), "Did Late Nineteen Century U.S. Tariffs Promote Infant Industries? Evidence from the Tinplate Industry," NBER Working paper no. 6835 (December) http://www.nber.org/papers/w6835
- Angus Maddison (1983), "A Comparison of Levels of GDP Per Capita in Developed and Developing Countries, 1700-1980," Journal of Economic History 43:1 (March), pp. 27-41 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507%28198303%2943%3A1%3C27%3AACOLOG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3
- Peter Temin (1966), "Labor Scarcity and the Problem of American Industrial Efficiency in the 1850s," Journal of Economic History 26, pp. 277-298 http://www.jstor.org/view/00220507/di975596/97p0463m/0
- Claudia Goldin and Kenneth Sokoloff (1984), "The Relative Productivity Hypothesis of Industrialization: The American Case, 1820-1850," Quarterly Journal of Economics 99 (August), pp. 461-87 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0033-5533%28198408%2999%3A3%3C461%3ATRPHOI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V