TOPICS IN AMERICAN ECONOMIC
HISTORY
Spring Semester 2000
MW 9:30-10:45
McClelland 131
University of Arizona
Professor Gary D. Libecap
202 McClelland
Hall, 621-4821
glibecap@bpa.arizona.edu
Office hours: email at any
time; office, M 8-8:30
The course objective
is to provide you with insights into the performance of the American economy
across time and with respect to other economies; the underlying sources of
growth; and key issues in American economic development. Assigned readings will be discussed in each
class.
Grading:
Midterm exam: 25%
of course grade
Final exam: 35% of course grade
Paper: 25%
of course grade
Class discussion 15% of course grade
Make up exams will
be given only with approved absences. Exams are short-answer essay and
definitions. There is no curving of
grades. The paper must be 10-15 pages
with endnotes and references. Each
student must select one of the works of American literature listed below or
another approved volume and place the work into the context of American
economic development at that time. The objective is to determine how economic
conditions at the time influenced the author and the work.
Course material:
Jeremy Atack and Peter Passell, A New Economic View of American
History, WW. Norton, 2nd Edition.
A copy of the US Constitution.
Gary Libecap, Contracting for Property Rights, Cambridge
University Press.
Readings Packet with required readings on Library Reserve
Below, required readings are starred (*) and in the packet.
Supplemental readings will be useful for your papers and are noted (s). I can
assist you in accessing the supplemental readings.
I. An Overview of American Economic Performance
Across Time and in Comparison with other Economies.
1. GNP and Per Capita Income:
Atack and Passell, Chapter 1 (*).
Richard Steckel, “Stature and Living Standards in the United States,”
in Robert Gallman and John Wallis eds, American Economic Growth and Standards
of Living before the Civil War, 1992, 265-310 (*).
Paul Romer, “Why Indeed, in America? Theory, History, and ...Economic Growth,” American
Economic Review, May 1996, 202-6 (*).
Angus Maddison, 1983, “A Comparison of Levels of GDP Per Capita in Developed
and Developing Countries, 1700-1980, Journal of Economic History, March,
27-41 (s).
William Baumol, “Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: What
the Long-Run Data Show,” American Economic Review, December 1986,
1072-85 (s).
Robert E. Gallman, “Gross National Product in the United States,
1834-1909,” in Output, Employment, and Productivity in the United States
after 1800, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 30, 1966, 3-76 (s).
2. Income and Wealth
Distribution.
Klaus Deininger and Lyn Squire, “A New Data Set Measuring Income
Inequality,” The World Bank Economic Review, 10 (3), 565-91 (*).
Jeffrey Williamson and Peter Lindert, 1985, “Growth, Equality, and
History,” Explorations in Economic History 341-77 (*).
Stanley Lebergott, 1976, “Are the Rich Getting Richer? Trends in US Wealth Concentration,” Journal
of Economic History, March 147-62 (s).
Edward Wolff, 1995, Top Heavy: A Study of Increasing Inequality of
Wealth in America, New York, Twentieth Century Fund and Brookings (s).
Jeffrey Williamson, “American Prices and Urban Inequality Since 1820,” Journal
of Economic History June 1976, 303-333 (s).
Lee Soltow, “Inequalities in the Standard of Living in the United
States, 1798-1875,” in Robert Gallman and John Wallis eds, American Economic
Growth and Standards of Living before the Civil War, 1992, 121-172 (s).
Anne Mayhew, 1972,“A Reappraisal of the Causes of Farm Protest in the
1870-1900,” Journal of Economic History, June 464-75 (s).
Robert McGuire,1981, “Economic Causes of Late Nineteenth Century
Agriarian Unrest,” Journal of Economic History, March, 835-52 (s).
Simon Kuznets, March 1955, “Economic Growth and Economic Inequality,” American
Economic Review, 1-28 (s).
Claudia Goldin and Robert Margo, 1992, “The Great Compression: The Wage
Structure in the US at MidCentury,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107
(1): 1-34 (s).
II. Sources of Economic Growth.
1. Labor Force.
Atack and Passell, Chapters 8, 19 (*).
Stanley Lebergott, 1966, “Labor Force and Employment 1800-1960,” in Studies
in Income and Wealth, Vol. 30, 117-204 (s).
Tom Weiss, 1992, “U.S. Labor Force Estimates and Economic Growth,
1800-1860, in in Robert Gallman and John Wallis eds, American Economic
Growth and Standards of Living before the Civil War, 19-78 (s).
Lee Alston and Tim Hatton, 1991, “The Earnings Gap Between
Agricultureal and Manufacturing Laborers, 1925-1941,” Journal of Economic
History, March, 83-99(s).
John James, 1981, “Some Evidence on Relative Labor Scarcity in 19th
Century American Manufacturing,” Explorations in Economic History, 18,
376-85 (s).
Frank Lewis, 1979, “Explaining the Shift of Labor from Agriculture to
Industry in the United States: 1869-1899,” Journal of Economic History,
September 681-98 (s).
Joshua Rosenbloom, 1990, “One Market or Many? Labor Market Integration
in the Late Nineteenth Century United States,” Journal of Economic History,
March 85-107 (s).
2. Demography.
Richard Steckel, “The Fertility Transition in the United States: Tests
of Alternative Hypotheses,”in Strategic Factors in Nineteenth Century
American Economic History, Claudia Goldin and Hugh Rockoff, eds, 1992,
351-374 (*).
Jenny Bourne Wahl, “New Results on the Decline in Household Family
Fertility in the United States, 1750-1900,” in Stanley Engerman and Robert
Gallman, eds., 1986, Long Term
Factors in American Economic Growth, Vol. 51, 391-437 (s).
3. Education.
Claudia Goldin, “America’s Graduation from High School: The Evolution
and Spread of Secondary Schooling in the Twentieth Century,” Journal of Economic
History, June 1998, 345-374 (*).
4. Health.
Edward Meeker, “The Social Return on Investment in Public Health,
1880-1910,” Journal of Economic History, June 1974, 392-421 (*).
Robert Fogel, “Nutrition and the Decline in Mortality since 1700: Some
Preliminary Findings,” in Stanley Engerman and Robert Gallman, eds, 1986, Long
Term Factors in American Economic Growth, Vol 51, 439-555 (s).
5. Immigration.
Joseph Ferrie, “The Wealth Accumulation of Antebellum Immigrants to the
US, 1840-60,” Journal of Economic History, March 1994, 1-33 (*).
George Borjas, “National Origin and the Skills of Immigrants in the
Postwar Period,” in Immigration and the Workforce, George Borjas and
Richard Freeman, eds, 1992, 17-48 (*).
Claudia Goldin, “The Political Economy of Immigration Restriction in
the United States, 1890-1921, in Claudia Goldin and Gary Libecap, eds, The
Regulated Economy: A Historical Approach to Political Economy, 223-57(s).
Tim Hatton and Jeffrey Williamson, 1993, “After the Famine: Emigration
from Ireland, 1850-1913,” Journal of Economic History, September 575-600
(s).
6. Land and Natural Resources.
Atack and Passell, Chapters 9, 15 (*).
Gavin Wright, “The Origins of American Industrial Success, 1879-1940,” American
Economic Review, September 1990, p. 651-68 (*).
David Galenson and Clayne Pope, 1989, “Economic and Geographic Mobility
on the Farming Frontier: Evidence from Appanoose County, Iowa, 1850-1870,” Journal
of Economic History, September, 635-55 (*).
Steven Herscovici, 1998, “Migration and Economic Mobility: Wealth
Accumulation and Occupational Change Among Antebellum Migrants and Persisters,”
Journal of Economic History, December, 927-56 (*).
Harold J. Barnett, 1979, “Scarcity and Growth Revisited,” in V. Kerry
Smith, ed. Scarcity and Growth Reconsidered, 163-97 (*).
Clarence H. Danhof, 1941, “Farming Making Costs and “The Safety Valve’”
Journal of Political Economy 41, 317-59 (s).
Ellen Von Nardoff, 1962, “The American Frontier as Safety Valve,”
Agricultural History, July (s).
Tim Conley and David Galenson, 1998, “Nativity and Wealth in
Mid-Nineteenth Century Cities,” Journal of Economic History, 58 2,
468-93 (s).
David Galenson and Clayne Pope, “Precedence and Wealth: Evidence from
Nineteenth Century Utah,” in Strategic Factors in Nineteenth Century
American Economic History, Claudia Goldin and Hugh Rockoff, eds, 1992,
225-42 (s).
Richard Steckel, 1983, “The Economic Foundations of East-West Migration
During the 19th Century,” Explorations in Economic History
20, 14-36 (s).
7. Market Size and Economies
of Scale.
Atack and Passell, Chapter 7, 17.
Jeremy Atack, 1985 “Industrial Structure and the Emergence of the
Modern Corporation,” Explorations in Economic History, January, 29-52
(*).
John James, 1983, “Structural Change in American Manufacturing,” Journal
of Economic History June, 433-59 (*).
Gary Libecap, 1992, “The Rise of the Chicago Packers and the Origins of
Meat Inspection and Antitrust,’ Economic Inquiry, 242-62 (*).
Jeremy Atack, 1986, “Firm Size and Industrial Structure in the United
States in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Economic History June
463-75 (s).
Anthony O’Brien, 1988, “Factory Size, Economies of Scale and the Merger
Wave, 1902,”Journal of Economic History, September, 639-50 (s).
Sukko Kim, 1995, “Expansion of Markets and the Geographic Distribution
of Economic Activities: The Trends in US Regional Manufacturing Structure,
1860-1987,” Quarterly Journal Economics (s).
David Mowery, 1983, “Industrial Research and Firm Size, Survival and
Growth in American Manufacturing, 1921-1946: An Assessment,” Journal of
Economic History, December, 953-80 (s).
Alfred Chandler, 1992, “Organizational Capabilities and the Economic
History of the Industrial Enterprise,” Journal of Economic Perspectives,
Summer, 79-100 (s).
8. Transportation.
Atack and Passell, Chapter 6, 16 (*).
Robert Fogel,1979, “Notes on the Social Savings Controversy,” Journal
of Economic History 39, March, 1-54 (s).
Stanley Engerman, 1972, “Some Economic Issues Relating to Railroad
Subsidies,” Journal of Economic History, June (s).
9. Trade.
Atack and Passell, Chapter 5 (*).
Ben Baack and Ed Ray, 1983,“The Political Economy of Tariff Policy: A
Case Study of the United States,” Explorations in Economic History,
73-93 (*).
Douglas Irwin, forthcoming, “Did Late Nineteenth Century U.S. Tariffs
Promote Infant Industries? Evidence from the Tinplate Industry,” Journal of
Economic History, 2000 (*).
Douglas Irwin and Randall Kroszner, “1999, “Interests, Institutions,
and Ideology in Securing Policy Change: The Republican Conversion to Trade
Liberalization after Smoot Hawley,” Journal of Law and Economics, 643-74
(s).
10. Technology.
Atack and Passell, Chapters 8, 10 (*).
Zorina Khan and Ken Sokoloff, 1993,“Schemes of Practical Utility
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Among ‘Great Inventors’ in the United States,
1790-1865,” Journal of Economic History, June, 289-307 (*).
Kenneth Sokoloff, “Inventive Activity in Early Industrial American,” Journal
of Economic History, 48, December 1988, 813-50 (s).
Naomi Lamoreaux and Kenneth Sokoloff, 1999, “Inventors, Firms, and the
Market for Technologyh in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,”
in Naomi Lamoreaux, Daniel Raff, and Peter Temin, eds, Learning by Doing in
Markets, Firms, and Countries, 1999, 19-60 (s).
Richard Easterlin, 1981, “Why Isn’t the Whole World Developed?” Journal
of Economic History, March 1-20 (s).
William N. Parker and Judith Klein, “Productivity Growth in Grain
Production in the United States,1840-60 and 1900-10,” in Output, Employment,
and Productivity in the United States after 1800, Studies in Income and
Wealth, Vol. 30, 1966, 523-579 (s).
Sally Clarke, 1991, “New Deal Regulation and the Revolution in Farm
Productivity,” Journal of Economic History March101-23 (s).
Ken Sokoloff, “Productivity Growth in Manufacturing during Early
Industrialization,” in Stanley Engerman and Robert Gallman, eds, Long-Term
Factors in American Economic Growth, Chicago, 1986, 679-81, 709-25 (s).
W. Devine, 1983, “From Shafts to Wires: Historical Perspective on
Electrification,” Journal of Economic History, June, 347-72 (s).
Nathan Rosenberg, 1963, “Technological Change in the Machine Tool Industry,
1840-1910,” Journal of Economic History. December (s).
Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, 1998, “The Origins of
Technology-Skill Complementarity,” Quarterly Journal of Economics,
August (s).
Moses Abramovitz, “Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind,” Journal
of Economic History, June 1986, 385-406 (s).
Stephen Broadberry, 1998, “How Did the United States and Germany
Overtake Britain? A Sectoral Analysis
of Comparative Productivity Levels, 1870-1990,” Journal of Economic History,
June 375-407 (s).
Allan G. Bogue, 1983, “Changes in Mechanical and Plant Technology: The
Corn Belt, 1910-1940,” Journal of Economic History, March 1-26 (s).
Brad De Long, 1992, “Productivity Growth and Machinery Investment: A
Long Run Loo, 1870-1980,” Journal of Economic History, June, 307-324
(s).
11. Institutions: Laws,
Contracts, Property Rights, Regulation, Transfers.
Atack and Passell, Chapter 23.
The US Constitution (*).
Robert Higgs, “Crisis, Bigger Government, and Ideological Change: Two
Hypotheses on the Ratchet Phenomenon,” Explorations in Economic History,
January 1985, vol 22, 1-28 (*).
Gary Libecap, “The Great Depression and the Regulating State: Federal
Government Regulation of Agriculture, 1884-1970,” in Michael Bordo, Claudia
Goldin and Eugene White, eds, The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and
the American Economy in the Twentieth Century, 1998, 181-226 (*).
Gary Libecap, Contracting for Property Rights, 1989, 1-72,
115-121 (*).
Gary Libecap, 1978, “Economic Variables and the Development of the Law:
The Case of Western Mineral Rights,” Journal of Economic History June,
338-62 (s).
Ronald Johnson and Gary Libecap, The Federal Civil Service System
and the Problem of Bureaucracy, 1994, 1-47 (s).
North, Douglass “Institutions,” Journal of Economic Perspectives,
1991, 5, 97-112 (s).
Bruce Benson, 1989, “The Spontaneous Evolution of Commercial Law,” Southern
Economic Journal, 55 (3), 644-61 (s).
III. Literature:
Upton Sinclair, The
Jungle.
John Steinbeck,
The Grapes of Wrath.
Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Mark Twain, The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Ole Rolvaag, Giants
in the Earth.
Willa Cather, My
Antonia.
Mark Twain, A
Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court.
Harriet H. Robinson,
Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls.
Alex de Tocqueville,
Democracy in America.
Matthew Josephson, Robber
Barons.
Ida Tarbell, History
of Standard Oil.
A.B. Guthrie Jr. The
Big Sky.
A.B. Guthrie, Jr. The
Way West.
William Styron The
Confessions of Nat Turner.
Dee Brown, Bury
My Heart at Wounded Knee.
F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Great Gatsby.
Stephen Crane, The
Red Badge of Courage.
Sinclair Lewis, Main
Street.
Edna Ferber, Cimarron.
Margaret Mitchell, Gone
with the Wind.
John W. Powell, Report
on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States.
Walter Prescott
Webb, The Great Plains.