STATE AND FINANCE IN HISTORY (Ec 565, MA level)

  • Issues in history are investigated using the tools and the point of view of economics. The emphasis is on the process of history and causality in the evolution of events. The main part of the course is on the interactions between the state and economics. 
  • An important tool will be the web site of the course. Some pages will be posted before the beginning of the course. 
  • The requirement for the course is a love for history and a strong desire to try to make some sense of it, using the tools of economics.
  • Reading list

OFFICE HOURS: Wednesday 3:30-630 pm, room 401, department of economics.

chamley@bu.eduMeeting 3 (9/19): Given the subject of Cyrus' presentation, I will discuss papers that are related to the topic of bubbles. (This is on the list of topics for the course, but we will discusss this earlier than expected. There probably will be a follow up, later in the course.

I will present some remarks on the theory of bubbles and provide the historical context for the following paper. This paper provides a good example of an economic history publication in a top journal.

Paper (I have added some highlights to speed up your reading):

  • Temin, P. and H-J Voth (2004). "Riding the South Sea Bubble," American Economic Review, 1654-1668.

  • MMN: Mayshar Joram, Omer Moav and Zvika Neeman (2017). “Geography, Transparency, and Institutions,” American Political Science Review, 111 (3) 622-636.
  • You should read the second part of the paper, which starts with the section "Egypt" (p 629). 
  • As a substitute for the first (algebraic part), somes notes are here.
  • For the historical background, you may see the notes on Mesopotamia and Egypt which are posted on the website for Ec 365.
  • Slides 1
  • Slides 2
  • Slides 3 (coins and seignorage)
  • Slides 4 (Greece and Rome)
  • Smith, Michael E., Jason Ur and Gary M. Feinman (2014). "Jane Jacobs' 'Cities First' Model and Archaeological Reality," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(4), 1525-35. Text with my highlights.
PRESENTATIONS
  • Eric Zhang: "The effect of the Grand Canal on Chinese regional development," slides.
  • Cyrus Zheng: "The development of markets for derivatives," slides.
Week 3
slides for the presentation by Cyrus
slides public finances in the Middle Ages
Finances in XVth century Spain: slides
Week 4
slides (Annie Chang and Kiernan Gallaher)
slides (CC)
  • *Velde, François (2014). Government Equity and Money: John Law’s System in 1720 France, 1-58, 59-99.
  • Neal, Larry (1990). The rise of Financial Capitalism, Chapters 4 and 5.
  • Temin, Peter and Hans-Joachim Voth (2004). "Riding the South Sea Bubble", AER, 94, 1654-1668.
  • Dale, Richard S., Johnie E.V Johnson, and Leilei Tang (2005). "Financial markets can go mad: evidence of irrational behaviour during the South Sea Bubble, " Economic History Review, 233-271.
  • Macdonald, James on the South Sea Bubble, pages 205-219.
  • Dickson, (1967). Chapter 5, "The South Sea Bubble (I).
  • Abreu, D. and M. Brunnermeier (2003). "Bubbles and Crashes," Econometrica, 71, 173-204.
Week 5
The rise of parliaments
  • Angelucci, C.l S. Meraglia and N. Voigtländer (2022). "How Merchant Towns Shaped Parliaments: From the Norman Conquest of England to the Great Reform Act," American Economic review, 112(10), 3441-3487.
  • Van Zanden, Jan Luiten, Eltjo Buringh, and Maarten Bosker. 2012. “The Rise and Decline of European Parliaments, 1188–1789.” Economic History Review 65 (3): 835–6.
  • Cox, Gary W., Mark Dincecco and Massimiliano Gaetano Onorato (2023). “Window of Opportunity: War and the Origins of Parliament,” WP.
  • Ahmed A and Stasavage D (2020) Origins of Early Democracy. American Political Science Review 114(2), 502–18.
  • Boucoyannis D (2015) No Taxation of Elites, No Representation: State Capacity and the Origins of Representation. Politics & Society 43(3), 303-332.
  • Cox GW (2017) Political Institutions, Economic Liberty, and the Great Divergence. Journal of . Economic History 77(3), 724-755. 
Week 6
Public finance in England after the Glorious Revolution
  • Chamley, C. (2011). "Interest Reductions in the Politico-Financial Nexus of 18th Century England," The Journal of Economic History, 71 (3), 555-589.
  •  Sussman, Nathan, and Yishay Yafeh (2005). "Constitutions and Commitment: Evidence on the Relation between institutions and the Cost of Capital," mimeo.
  •   Quinn, Stephen (2008). "Securitization of Sovereign Debt: Corporations as a Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism in Britain, 1694 to 1750," mimeo.
  •   Brewer, J. (1988). The Sinews of Power: War Money and the English State, 1688-1783, Chapter 4, "Money, Money, the Growth in Debts and Taxes", 88-134.

 slides

Week 7
EMP 
  • MacFarlane, A. (1978). “The Origins of English Individualism: Some Surprises,” Theory and Society, 6 (2), 255-277.
  • Hajnal, J. (1965) European Marriage Patterns in perspective, in D. V. Glass and D. E. C. Eversley (eds) Population in History: Essays in Historical Demography, Arnold, London.
  • Hajnal, J. (1982) Two kinds of preindustrial household formation system, Population and Development Review, 8, 449–94.
  • Fukuyama, Francis (2011). The Origins of Political Order, chapter 16: "Christianity undermines the family," Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York.
  • Goody, Jack (1983). The Development of the family and Marriage in Europe, New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • ____ (2000). The European Family: An Historico-Anthropological Essay, Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  • Edwards, J. and S. Ogilvie (2022). "Didd the Black Death cause economic development by 'inventing' fertility restriction?," Oxford Economic Papers, 1228-1246.
  • Voigtländer, N. and H.-J. Voth (2013). "How the West ‘invented’ fertility restriction," American Economic Review, 103, 2227–64.
Week 8
  • Greif, A. (2006) Family structure, institutions, and growth: the origins and implications of western corporations, American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, 96, 308–12.
  • Greif, A. and Tabellini, G. (2010) Cultural and institutional bifurcation: China and Europe compared, American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, 100, 135–40. 
Week 9
  • Slides (Annie/Kiernan):"The Economics Effects of the Abolition of Serfdom:Evidence from the Russian Empire," yy Andrei Markevich and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya.
  • Slides  on the French Revolution
    • Sargent, T. and F. Velde (1995). "Macroeconomic Features of the French Revolution," Journal of Political Economy, 104(3), 474-518.

Week 10
  • Hoffman, Philip (2012). "Why Was It Europeans Who Conquered the World?," Journal of Economic History, 72(3), 601-632.
  • Dincecco, Mark and Yuhua Wang (2018). "Violent conflict and Political Development Over the Long Run: China Versus Europe," Annual Review of Poltical Science, 21, 341-358.

Week 11
  • Presentation by Eric: "Reform the Coinage: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Paper Currency System."
    • Slides
    • Reading list:
      • Chau-Nan Chen, Pin-Tsun Chang, Shikuan Chen (1995). "The Sung and Ming paper monies: Currency competition and currency bubbles," Journal of Macroeconomics, (17)2, 273-288.
      • Glahn, Richard von. (20100. “Monies of Account and Monetary Transition in China, Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 53(3), 463–505.
      • Guan, H., Palma, N., and Wu, M. (2024). "The rise and fall of paper money in Yuan China, 1260–1368," Economic History Review, 77, 1222–1250.

Week 12
  • Presentation by Erin Michelet:
    • Acemoglu, Daron, Davide Cantoni, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson (2011). "The Consequences of Radical Reform: The French Revolution," American Economic Review, 101(7), 3286-3307.
    • Slides
  • Presentation by Cyrus Zheng Qian Kwan:
    •  "The Emergence and Persistence of the Anglo-Saxon and German Financial Systems." by Baliga, Sandeep and Ben Polak (Yale), (2004), Oxford University Press.
    • Slides

Week 13: Presentations
  • Bhimraj Bhuller: "Fouquet, Roger, and Stephen Broadberry. 2015. “Seven Centuries of European Economic Growth and Decline.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 29 (4): 227–44.

Week 14 :
  • Dantong Li : Clark Gregory, Kevin H. O'Rourke and Alan M. Taylor (2008). "Made in America? The New World, the Old, and the Industrial Revolution," American Economic Review, 98 (2), 523-28.
  • Bhimraj Buller:  slides. 
  • Tatiana Niebuhr:  slides.