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

Econ 210a: February 28: Question: The Inflation of the 1970s

Econ 210a: February 21: Question: The Inflation of the 1970s John Maynard Keynes said, near the end of his life, that the problem of controlling inflation while maintaining full employment was fundamentally a political and not an economic question. Did the 1970s in the developed world prove him right, or prove him wrong?

Econ 210a: February 21: Question: Why Isn't the Whole World Developed?

Econ 210a: February 21: Question: Why Isn't the Whole World Developed? The economic history of the world both in the post-WWII period 1945-1990 and, in broader perspective, 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, in your judgment, are the possible big-picture theories for explaining this phenomenon that are worth investigating?

Econ 210a: February 14: Question: Europe's Post-WWII Golden Age

A growing literature develops explanations for 'Europe's golden age' (the European economy's fast growth in the third quarter of the 20th century). Is this effort misguided? In other words, do we really need fancy explanations for a straightforward phenomenon that is easily explained in terms of convergence and delayed structural change?

Econ 210a: February 7: Memo Question: The "International View" of the Great Depression

According to Theo Balderston in The World Economy and National Economies in the Interwar Slump, the "international view" is the most important contribution to the literature on the Great Depression in the last 20 years. According to Anna Schwartz, it adds nothing to what was known before. With whom do you agree, and why?

Econ 210a: January 31: Memo Question: Friedman's "Monetary History"

When Milton Friedman passed away on November 16th, 2006 it was widely observed that his "Monetary History" (coauthored with Anna Schwartz) was the single most influential book in the general area of monetary- and macro-economics written in the 20th century. Why has this book been so influential?

Economics 210a: Memo Question for January 24

Textbooks say that the gold standard had internal mechanisms that worked automatically to maintain both price and balance-of-payments stability. On what grounds do Arthur Bloomfield and Hugh Rockoff challenge this textbook view? Are their points convincing?

Memo Question for January 17

Sanford Jacoby and John James both suggest that late-19th century American labor markets were very different from American labor markets today. What are the three most important factors they point to as explaining these differences?

Econ 210a: 2006-2007: Memo Question for December 6

What is Alexander Gerschenkron's view of the role of financial markets and institutions in economic development? How might he have modified it had he known about the four decades of development experience that now post-dates his article?

Econ 210a: Fall 2006: Memo Question for November 29--Spread of Industrialization

MEMO QUESTION FOR NOVEMBER 29 Is the pace of advance and the pace of the spread of industrialization in the nineteenth century best characterized as "fast" or "slow"? Why?

Econ 210a: Fall 2006: Memo Question for November 22

Memo Question for November 22:

An influential literature cites the scarcity of labor as a key factor in the emergence of the "American System of Production." How much of this argument (if any) survives Peter Temin's 1966 critique?