Slide 2. Power point… Slavery differed in the North and the South
Download 0.83 Mb.
|
POWER POINT 7
| Douglass North (1920-2015)
-Douglass North made his initial impact with research on the American economy. -However, whereas Fogel disputed the importance of one sector of the economy in explaining economic growth -North focused on the impact that individual sectors could have in explaining economic outcomes. -He sought to explain the causes of growth in the antebellum American economy. -He showed how one sector (the cotton industry) could stimulate development in other branches, ultimately leading to specialization and interregional trade. -In 1993, North and Fogel were awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for, in the words of the Nobel committee, being “pioneers in the branch of economic history that has been called the ‘new economic history,’ or cliometrics.” To sum up -In the 1950s a small group of North American scholars adopted a revolutionary approach to investigating the economic past that soon spread to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. -The new approach was first called “The New Economic History,” then “Cliometrics.” -The term cliometrics derives from Clio, who was the muse of history. -Cliometrics is the systematic application of economic theory, statistics, and other mathematical methods to the study of history. It is a quantitative approach to economic history (as opposed to qualitative history). -Cliometrics has 4 key elements: 1. use of quantifiable evidence, 2. use of theoretical concepts and models, 3. use of statistical methods of estimation and inference, 4. employment of the historian’s skills in judging provenance and quality of sources, in placing an investigation in institutional and social context. ---Cliometricians were using their new tools to overturn some long-held beliefs such: • railroads were indispensable to economic growth (Fogel 1964) • slavery was unprofitable (Conrad and Meyer 1958) • that President Jackson caused the financial panics of the 1830s (Temin 1969) Download 0.83 Mb. Share with your friends:
|