Z **Archived** Economics 210a: Introduction to Economic History: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2008

Memo Question for March 5

Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson state that "It is undoubtedly true that colonial relations with the New World and Asia contributed to European growth." They go on to acknowledge that profits from these trades directly could not have accounted for much growth. How, then, can they, or anyone (i.e. the other readings), so confidently assert that the intercontinental trades caused "European growth." Does the answer depend on the definition of growth, or on a more complex model of the relationship of trade to growth?

Memo Question for February 27: Colonialism

"The treasure captured outside Europe by undisguised looting, enslavement and murder, floated back to the mother-country and were there turned into capital." -- Marx, Capital, Vol. 1 Ch. 32.

Do the other assigned readings provide any basis for assessing the general truth of this passage from Marx? In what sense did colonial trade in the 1497-1800 period contribute to capital formation in Europe?

Memo Question for February 13: Industrious Revolution

Memo Question for February 13: Industrious Revolution: In his article Voth cites the elegant dictum of D. N. McCloskey that "ingenuity rather than abstention governed the Industrial Revolution." By this McCloskey meant that technological change was more important than a rise in investment (and a corresponding decline in current consumption) in driving economic growth during the Industrial Revolution.

Voth concludes his article as follows: "Abstention seems to have been more important than invention [in bringing about the Industrial Revolution]but it was abstention from leisure ... that was at the core of economic growth."

Does Voth provide the evidence needed to persuade you that he is correct? Is his evidence convincing to Clark? What evidence would you deem necessary to make this case?

Memo Question for February 20: Institutions

Memo Question for February 20: Institutions: Judging by the readings, how much of a difference does "good government"--that is, a government that cares about commerce and enforces contracts more-or-less honestly--appear to have made in the centuries before the industrial revolution in Britain?

Office Hours

Jan de Vries: My office hours are Thursdays, 2-4 pm, in 3317 Dwinelle Hall.

Brad DeLong: My office hours are Wednesdays, 2-whenever, in 601 Evans Hall

Brad DeLong's Notes of Jan de Vries on Historical Demography

Jan de Vries on Historical Demography

Policy questions and historical research advances

• How does pop growth affect exon growth?
• In what demographic setting did exon growth emerge?

A Malthusian world?

• Models
• Realities
• High vs. low pressure
• Eueipean marriage pattern
• Really a "motionless" society?

The Demographic Transition

• How did it start? Exog or endog?
• Why fertility decline when?
• How does the transition end?

American Exceptionalism?

• Malthus in a benign environment
• Antebellum puzzles
• Declining fertility--target and strategic bequests
• Rising mortality
• Immigration
• Baby booms and busts: echoes