Master of Science in European Economy
and Business Law

Updated A.Y. 2019-2020

Economic History

University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
Master of Science in European Economy and Business Law
A.Y.  2019/2020

Instructor

Prof. Giulia Mancini - giulia.mancini@uniroma2.it

Office hours (room P2 S29)

During the course (Feb 17-Mar 25): Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 15:00-16:00. After the course: on appointment.

Course topic

The international economy from the mid-19th century to the present.

Attendance

Not compulsory, but strongly encouraged.

Exam

All students are required to sit a written examination. The test consists of three questions, and lasts 1.5 hours. Please remember to book your exam by logging into Delphi.
The exam calendar is available at the webpage of the course. No other dates (pre-exams, exceptional sessions, etc.) can be scheduled. As per EEBL rules, students are allowed to sit the March exam, the one held in June/July, and the September exam, while they must choose one of the two dates available in January/February.
Note that cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. In the event that a student is found cheating during the written exam, the student will get a failing grade. The student will need to sit the written exam again, and will be reported to Director of the MSc.

 
Outline of the course

1. The pre-industrial economy and the Malthusian growth model
2. Britain’s Industrial Revolution
3. The First Globalization
3.1. International trade and the Ricardian model
3.2. The age of mass migration
3.3. International capital flows
3.4. The Heckscher-Ohlin model
3.5. The International Monetary System
4. WWI – The War Economy and the Economic Consequences of the Peace
5. The International Economy between the WW: the Great Depression
6. WWII: Bretton Woods and the Marshall plan
7. Europe’s Golden Age (1950-1973)
8. The crisis of the 1970s (1971-1989)
9. From the Second Globalization to the present day (1989-2007)
10. Two Centuries of inequality and poverty around the world

 
Lectures and readings

All readings will be available for download at the course webpage. All readings are compulsory, unless otherwise specified.

Feb 17 and 18, lectures 1 and 2: The pre-Industrial economy and the Malthusian growth model
Readings:
- Deaton, A. (2014). The Great Escape, Princeton University Press (Chapter 2).
- Clark, G. (2008). A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World. Princeton University Press (Chapter 2).

Feb 19, lecture 3: Britain’s Industrial Revolution and Modern Economic Growth
Readings:
- A’Hearn, B. (2014). The British industrial revolution in a European mirror. In R. Floud, J. Humphries and P. Johnson (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain. Vol. I: 1700-1870.
- Allen, R.C. (2010). Why the industrial revolution was British: commerce, induced invention, and the scientific revolution. The Economic History Review, 64(2), 357-384.
- Humphries, J., and Schneider, B. (2019). Spinning the industrial revolution. The Economic History Review, 72(1), 126-155. (not compulsory)

Feb 24, lecture 4: The First Globalization (I – International trade)
Readings:
- O’Rourke, K. and J.G. Williamson (1999). Globalization and History. The evolution of a nineteenth-century Atlantic economy. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press (Chapter 3).
- O’Rourke, K. and J.G. Williamson (1999). Globalization and History. The evolution of a nineteenth-century Atlantic economy. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press (Chapter 2 - not compulsory)
- Krugman, P. R., Obstfeld M., and M. Melitz (2014). International Economics: Theory and Policy. 10th Edition. Prentice Hall (Chapter 3 - not compulsory).
- Kuznets, S. (1973). Modern economic growth: findings and reflections. The American Economic Review, 63(3), 247-258 (not compulsory).

Feb 25, lecture 5: The First Globalization (II – Mass Migration)
Readings:
- O’Rourke, K. and J.G. Williamson (1999). Globalization and History. The evolution of a nineteenth-century Atlantic economy. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press (Chapter 7).

Feb 26, lecture 6: The First Globalization (III – International Capital Flows)
Readings:
- O’Rourke, K. and J.G. Williamson (1999). Globalization and History. The evolution of a nineteenth-century Atlantic economy. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press (Chapters 11 and 12).

Mar 2, lecture 7: The First Globalization (IV – The International Monetary System)
Readings:
- Cameron, R. and L. Neal (2002). A Concise Economic History of the World, From Paleolithic Times to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press (Chapter 12).
- Eichengreen, B. (1996). Globalizing Capital. A History of the International Monetary System. Princeton: Princeton University Press, Ch. 2 (“The Gold Standard”), pp. 7-44.
- Krugman, P. R., Obstfeld M., and M. Melitz (2014). International Economics: Theory and Policy. 10th Edition. Prentice Hall (Chapter 19 - not compulsory).

Mar 3, lecture 8: The First Globalization (V – The Heckscher-Ohlin Model)
Readings:
- O’Rourke, K. and J.G. Williamson (1999). Globalization and History. The evolution of a nineteenth-century Atlantic economy. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press (Chapter 4).

Mar 4, lecture 9: “Intellectual property: a simple case for abolition” (Seminar Speaker. Prof. Alessandro Nuvolari, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna)
Readings:
- Allen, R. C. (1983), ‘Collective Invention’,  Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization,  Vol. 4, pp. 1-24.
- Bessen, J. and Nuvolari, A. (2016), ‘Knowledge Sharing among Inventors: Some Historical Perspectives”: in Harhoff, D. and Lakhani, K. (eds.), Revolutionizing Innovation: Users, Communities and Open Innovation, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA).

Mar 9, lecture 10: The war economy and the economic consequences of the peace
Readings:
- Broadberry, S. and M. Harrison (2009). The economics of World War I: an overview. In Broadberry, S. and M. Harrison, eds., The economics of World War I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Feinstein, C.H., P. Temin and G. Toniolo (2008). The World Economy between the World Wars. New York: Oxford University Press (Chapters 1 and 2)

Mar 10, lecture 11: The economy between the World Wars and the Great Depression
Readings:
- Feinstein, C.H., P. Temin and G. Toniolo (2008). The World Economy between the World Wars. New York: Oxford University Press (Chapters 3, 4 and 6).

Mar 11, lecture 12: The Bretton Woods conference
Readings:
- Feinstein, C.H., P. Temin and G. Toniolo (2008). The World Economy between the World Wars. New York: Oxford University Press (Chapter 10).
- Cameron, R. and L. Neal (2002). A Concise Economic History of the World, From Paleolithic Times to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press (Chapter 15).

Mar 16, lecture 13: The Marshall Plan
Readings:
- Eichengreen, B. (2006). The European Economy Since 1945. Princeton university Press (Chapter 3).
- De Long, J. B., and Eichengreen, B. (1991). The Marshall Plan: History's most successful structural adjustment program. National Bureau of Economic Research (No. w3899) (not compulsory).

Mar 17, lecture 14: Europe’s Golden Age (1950-1973)
Readings:
- Toniolo, G. (1998). Europe’s golden age, 1950-1973: speculations from a long-run perspective. The Economic History Review, LI, 2: 252-67.
- Eichengreen, B. (2006). The European Economy Since 1945. Princeton University Press (Chapter 4) (not compulsory).

Mar 18, lecture 15: The rise of women’s paid labor
Readings:
- Humphries, J. (2018). Women and Children. In Blum, M., and Colvin, C. L. (Eds.). (2018). An Economist's Guide to Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Costa, D. L. (2000). From Mill Town to Board Room: The Rise of Women's Paid Labor. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(4): 101-122.

Mar 23, lecture 16: The crisis of the 1970s and the Second Globalization
Readings:
- Frieden, J. (2006). Global Capitalism. Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century. Norton (Chapter 16) (not compulsory).
- Eichengreen, B. (2006). The European Economy Since 1945. Princeton University Press (Chapters 8, 9 and 10) (not compulsory).

Mar 24, lecture 17: Two centuries of inequality and poverty around the world
Readings:
- Bourguignon, F., and Morrisson, C. (2002). Inequality Among World Citizens: 1820-1992. American Economic Review, 92(4): 727-744.
- Lakner, C., and Milanovic, B. (2016). Global income distribution: From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Great Recession. The World Bank Economic Review, 30(2), 203-232 (not compulsory).