Timothy Leunig and Hans-Joachim Voth
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263471
- eISBN:
- 9780191734786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263471.003.0015
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter discusses height as a reliable indicator of health status and standard of living. It also suggests that mapping from height to other measures of well-being has attracted the attention of ...
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This chapter discusses height as a reliable indicator of health status and standard of living. It also suggests that mapping from height to other measures of well-being has attracted the attention of economic historians. The history of heights may prove to be a useful means by which economic historians can better explain the past. The first area is social history, and in particular family history, in the developed world. The second is the economic history of those countries or areas with limited amounts of other data.Less
This chapter discusses height as a reliable indicator of health status and standard of living. It also suggests that mapping from height to other measures of well-being has attracted the attention of economic historians. The history of heights may prove to be a useful means by which economic historians can better explain the past. The first area is social history, and in particular family history, in the developed world. The second is the economic history of those countries or areas with limited amounts of other data.
Francesco Boldizzoni
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691144009
- eISBN:
- 9781400838851
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691144009.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
The major misunderstanding about cliometrics comes from the subsequent spread of Douglass North's new institutional approach. North claims to have challenged traditional economic theory, which he ...
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The major misunderstanding about cliometrics comes from the subsequent spread of Douglass North's new institutional approach. North claims to have challenged traditional economic theory, which he found inadequate. This chapter shows how this approach, besides being patently unhistorical, rests on flimsy foundations. In order to do so, it draws on a variety of evidence from the social and historical sciences. It also compares North's synthesis with the example of social science history offered by Moses Finley, the eminent ancient economic historian. Finley made a powerful argument against the application of modern economic theory to the past. Furthermore, he developed an alternative interpretation for the origin of institutions, rigorously demonstrating the logical precedence of society over the economy. The chapter begins by considering the criticism that Karl Polanyi made against neoclassical economics in the mid-twentieth century. In fact, both North's and Finley's works can be read as a response to Polanyi.Less
The major misunderstanding about cliometrics comes from the subsequent spread of Douglass North's new institutional approach. North claims to have challenged traditional economic theory, which he found inadequate. This chapter shows how this approach, besides being patently unhistorical, rests on flimsy foundations. In order to do so, it draws on a variety of evidence from the social and historical sciences. It also compares North's synthesis with the example of social science history offered by Moses Finley, the eminent ancient economic historian. Finley made a powerful argument against the application of modern economic theory to the past. Furthermore, he developed an alternative interpretation for the origin of institutions, rigorously demonstrating the logical precedence of society over the economy. The chapter begins by considering the criticism that Karl Polanyi made against neoclassical economics in the mid-twentieth century. In fact, both North's and Finley's works can be read as a response to Polanyi.
Francesco Boldizzoni
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691144009
- eISBN:
- 9781400838851
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691144009.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter covers macroeconomic issues, including economic cycles, money, price levels, the nature of growth, and the historical roots of underdevelopment. It shows how the micro level is logically ...
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This chapter covers macroeconomic issues, including economic cycles, money, price levels, the nature of growth, and the historical roots of underdevelopment. It shows how the micro level is logically linked to the macro level. It also argues that the crisis of the French-style economic history in the past twenty years is due more to French historians transferring their interest to cultural history. However, abandoning quantitative history in favor of the histoire des mentalités does not imply there is no room for economic history alongside the new political history and other aspects such as the history of the body and the history of death that were once considered eccentric.Less
This chapter covers macroeconomic issues, including economic cycles, money, price levels, the nature of growth, and the historical roots of underdevelopment. It shows how the micro level is logically linked to the macro level. It also argues that the crisis of the French-style economic history in the past twenty years is due more to French historians transferring their interest to cultural history. However, abandoning quantitative history in favor of the histoire des mentalités does not imply there is no room for economic history alongside the new political history and other aspects such as the history of the body and the history of death that were once considered eccentric.
Andrew Stewart Skinner
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198233343
- eISBN:
- 9780191678974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198233343.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
Adam Smith's interest in social history found a number of precedents and parallels on the Continent. It is interesting to note that, as Quaestor for the University Library, Smith made purchases ...
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Adam Smith's interest in social history found a number of precedents and parallels on the Continent. It is interesting to note that, as Quaestor for the University Library, Smith made purchases including the works of Giannonne, Daniel, and Brosse, and that he owned copies of works by Fénelon, Fontenelle, Rollin, Raynal, Mably, Duclos, and Chastellux, to name a few. Such writers are associated with something of a revolution in historical writing. Smith's own work on the history of civil society is particularly noteworthy, and is among the first subjects that he appears to have addressed. Even if we exclude the Edinburgh Lectures, it is now well known, from the account supplied by John Millar, that the third part of Smith's lecture course delivered from the Moral Philosophy chair had been concerned with ‘that branch of morality which relates to justice’. Smith managed to isolate four distinct modes of subsistence to which there corresponded four types of social structure: the stages of hunting, pasturage, farming, and commerce.Less
Adam Smith's interest in social history found a number of precedents and parallels on the Continent. It is interesting to note that, as Quaestor for the University Library, Smith made purchases including the works of Giannonne, Daniel, and Brosse, and that he owned copies of works by Fénelon, Fontenelle, Rollin, Raynal, Mably, Duclos, and Chastellux, to name a few. Such writers are associated with something of a revolution in historical writing. Smith's own work on the history of civil society is particularly noteworthy, and is among the first subjects that he appears to have addressed. Even if we exclude the Edinburgh Lectures, it is now well known, from the account supplied by John Millar, that the third part of Smith's lecture course delivered from the Moral Philosophy chair had been concerned with ‘that branch of morality which relates to justice’. Smith managed to isolate four distinct modes of subsistence to which there corresponded four types of social structure: the stages of hunting, pasturage, farming, and commerce.
