Stonehill College
Spring Semester 1997-98
Class hours: Tu Th 11:30-12:45
Professor Akira Motomura
Office: 241 Duffy Phone: (565)‑1241
E-mail: amotomura@stonehill.edu
Office hours: Mon 4‑5; Tu 2-3:30, Wed 1-2 and by appointment
Web home page (coming soon!): http://www2.stonehill.edu/~amotomu
EC 219: History of World Economic Development
Prerequisites: The only real one is a willingness to listen, read, think, discuss, and write critically and carefully. It will help to know some economics and history, more for the way of thinking than for any specific knowledge. We will use economic concepts like supply and demand, comparative advantage, marginal cost, economies of scale, and a few others which we will learn in class. If you find those mentioned here unfamiliar or forgotten, see me or an introductory economics text.
Readings: I have ordered the following books for purchase at the Stonehill bookstore.
Cameron, Rondo. A Concise Economic History of the World (3d edition), Oxford.
Jones, Eric. Growth Recurring, Oxford.
Mokyr, Joel. The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress, Oxford.
There will be additional required readings; some may be handed out in class while others are put on reserve. Expect about 90‑100 pages per week up to the second exam.
You will give each other and receive feedback on intermediate steps in your papers via email, and I will give you feedback by that means as well. If you're not familiar with email yet, I encourage you to become competent at it.
Class meetings will include lecture, discussion, and student presentations. It will be important to do the reading before those classes which involve discussion.
If you have a disability and need some accomodation related to your disability and this course, see me as soon as possible.
Summary of Assignments, Weights and Dates
Class Participation 15%*
Mini-paper, due Tuesday, January 27 2%
Discussion questions and reactions, assigned frequently 10%
First paper, draft due Thursday, February 19
final version due Thursday, March 5 10%*
First exam, Thursday, February 26 10%*
Second exam, Tuesday, April 21 15%*
Four critiques of classmates' work 4x1.5%
Second paper, proposal due Tues, March 3 (or fuller version on March 17)
progress report due Thursday, April 9
oral presentation April 23-30 (or earlier)
final version due Monday, May 4, 1pm 20%*
Bonus of (unweighted) average of three highest *'d grades (to make 100%) 12%
Description of Assignments
1. Class participation. Your participation will include discussing assigned readings and giving two oral presentations: one on some reading that you (and perhaps a partner) but not the rest of the class will do, the other on your second paper in progress. Any assigned ungraded feedback will also count here. You will be asked to comment (confidentially) on your classmates' participation.
2. You will write and turn in discussion questions and reactions about current reading on a regular basis. They are designed to spur discussion and give you a concrete incentive to keep up with the reading.
3. Exams emphasizing thoughtful synthetic essays. The second exam will be comprehensive, but emphasize post-midterm material.
4. Papers
a. A brief "warmup" mini-paper to be presented and discussed in small groups at the second class.
b. A 4‑6pp critical first essay; I will distribute topic suggestions. You will give each other feedback on your drafts, and there will be a required rewrite.
c. A 10‑15pp critical second essay critically comparing and analyzing some related scholarly works, with a required proposal, progress report, and in-class presentation. The quality of your intermediate work will affect your paper grade.
5. Feedback to classmates. You will give your classmates written feedback in various ways, preferably by email with a copy to me:
a. one on an oral presentation about reading (factored in class participation);
b. two on drafts of the first essay (graded);
c. two about other students' papers in progress after their presentations (graded).
Alternative options. You may propose a thoughtful alternative set of assignments for yourself if you want to do something more creative or independent. Discuss your ideas with me, then we'll negotiate something specific. This option may not be used to put off an imminent deadline.
Notes: 1) The dates are not absolute; we will see how the term goes. Changes will not be last minute or granted individually. 2) Improvement over the term will be considered in final course grades. 3) To be excused from a deadline or a midterm or given a makeup exam, you must have documentation of: illness serious enough to require medical attention, a major family emergency (like death or grave illness, not an errand), or an official College commitment‑-tell me by the Drop/Add deadline or as soon as possible once the conflict becomes apparent or foreseeable. No makeup midterm will be given after the exam is returned. My willingness to be accommodating in makeup assignments depends on how responsibly you act. 4) Late paper penalties are .2 on a 4.0 scale for the first 24 hours plus .1 for each additional school day and .2 for weekends unless otherwise specified. 5) Unexcused failure to complete an assignment will result in a negative grade on a 4.0 scale.
Readings (subject to change or coverage in student presentations)
Rec = recommended reading
ACEHW = Cameron, A Concise Economic History of the World.
GR = Jones, Growth Recurring
TLR = Mokyr, The Lever of Riches.
I. How economic historians think
Douglass C. North, Terry L. Anderson, and Peter J. Hill, pp. 1‑7 of Growth and Welfare in the American Past, 3d ed., Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983.
Paul A. David, "Understanding the Economics of QWERTY: the Necessity of History," pp. 30‑49 of William N. Parker, ed., Economic History and the Modern Economist, New York: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
II. The pre-industrial world
TLR, chs 2-4, 8.
GR, chs 3-4.
Akira Motomura, "Political Institutions and the Spanish Monarchy's Finances, 1521‑1648", unpublished manuscript.
Douglass North and Barry Weingast, "Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England" Journal of Economic History 49 (1989), 803‑32.
Rec: ACEHW, pp. 95‑161
III. Industrialization (1750-1914)
TLR, chs 5-6
GR, ch1
ACHEW, pp 162‑323.
Peter Temin, "Two Views of the Industrial Revolution", Journal of Economic History 57 (1997), pp. 63‑82.
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Creating competitive capability: Innovation and investment in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany from the 1870s to World War I. in Favorites of Fortune, 1991, 432‑458.
Alexander Gerschenkron, 1965, "Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective", from Economic backwardness in historical perspective, pp. 5‑30.
Daniel M. Headrick, 1979, "The tools of imperialism: Technology and the expansion of European colonial empires in the nineteenth century", Journal of Modern History 51, 231-63.
Rec: Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., "The Emergence of Managerial Capitalism," Business History Review 58, 1984, 473‑503
IV. What causes technological change and long run economic growth? (classes 16-19)
GR, chs 2, 5-10, Conclusion.
Kenneth Pomeranz, "Rethinking 18th Century China" EH.Res posting, November 1997; and selected responses.
TLR, chs 1, 7, 9‑11.
Jan deVries, "The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution", Journal of Economic History 54:2 (June 1994), 249‑70.
Joseph Schumpeter, "The Process of Creative Destruction," Ch VII of Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, (3d edn, 1950), pp. 81‑86.
Joel Mokyr, "Technological Inertia in Economic History", Journal of Economic History 52 (1992), 325‑38.
Rec: ACEHW, 3‑19.
V. The twentieth century (1914‑present)
ACEHW, pp. 324‑405.
Moses Abramowitz, "Thinking About Growth: Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind", Journal of Economic History 46 (1986), 385‑406.