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Economic Growth and Development
"On ne voit bien qu´avec le coeur. L´essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Economic history is the study of how economic phenomena evolved from a historical perspective. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations. The topic includes business history, financial history and overlaps with areas of social history such as demographic history and labor history. Quantitative (econometric) economic history is also referred to as cliometrics. Yale University economist Irving Fisher wrote in 1933 on the relationship between economics and economic history in his 'Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions' (Econometrica, Vol.1, No.4: 337-338): 'The study of dis-equilibrium may proceed in either of two ways. We may take as our unit for study an actual historical case of great dis-equilibrium, such as, say, the panic of 1873; or we may take as our unit for study any constituent tendency, such as, say, deflation, and discover its general laws, relations to, and combinations with, other tendencies. The former study revolves around events, or facts; the latter, around tendencies. The former is primarily economic history; the latter is primarily economic science. Both sorts of studies are proper and important. Each helps the other. The panic of 1873 can only be understood in light of the various tendencies involved ? deflation and other; and deflation can only be understood in the light of various historical manifestations ? 1873 and other.' There is a school of thought among economic historians that splits economic history ? the study of how economic phenomena evolved in the past ? from historical economics ? testing the generality of economic theory using historical episodes. US economic historian Charles P. Kindleberger explained this position in his 1990 book Historical Economics: Art or Science?.[2] The professional society for economic historians in Europe is called the European Historical Economics Society to reflect this emphasis. Most economic historians today, however, do not make this fine distinction between the two schools of thought and the term historical economics has gone out of fashion somewhat. The New economic history, also known as cliometrics, refers to the systematic use of economic theory and econometric techniques to the study of economic history. The term cliometrics was originally coined by Jonathan R.T. Hughes and Stanley Reiter in 1960 and refers to Clio, who was the muse of history and heroic poetry in Greek mythology. Cliometricians argue their approach is necessary because the inclusion of history is crucial in formulating solid economic theory. Cliometrics is a type of counterfactual history. Some have argued that cliometrics had its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s and that it is now neglected by economists and historians,[3] but as over 20 papers at the 2011 annual meetings of the Allied Social Sciences Association can be considered cliometric in nature,[4] the field has perhaps been written off a little prematurely.
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