Readings for Econ 135 S 2023: History of Economic Growth
Required Books:
Clark: A Farewell to Alms
Allen: Global Economic History
DeLong: Slouching Towards Utopia
1. Introduction
Day 1: 2022-01-17 Tu: 1.1. Introduction
Required: Clark 1; Allen 1; DeLong Intro.
Optional: Andy Matuschak: Why Books Don’t Work
Day 2: 2022-01-19 Th: 1.2. Numerical Guesses of Long-Run Growth
Required: Greg Clark (2007): The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1209-2004
Optional: Doug Jones (2022): Toba, or the Sperm Whale Effect?; Monika Karmin & al. (2015): A Recent Bottleneck of Y-Chromosome Diversity Coincides with a Global Change in Culture; Jared Diamond (1987): The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race; Doug Jones (2022): The Patriarchal Age …
2. Ensorcelled by the Devil of Malthus
Day 3: 2022-01-24 Tu & -26 Th: 2.1. Malthusian Logic
Required: Clark, 2-5
Optional: Brad DeLong: Lecture Notes: The Solow Growth Model; Lecture Notes: Malthusian Economies <http://datahub.berkeley.edu/user-redirect/interact?account=braddelong&repo=history-of-economic-growth-theory-readings&branch=main&path=heg-growth-theory.ipynb>
Day 4: 2022-01-31 Tu: 2.2.Efflorescences & Dark Ages
Required: Willem Jongman (2007): Gibbon was Right: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Economy
Optional: Jack Goldstone (2002); Efflorescences and Economic Growth in World History; Josiah Ober (2020): Agamemnon’s Cluelessness; Peter Temin: The Roman Market Economy, Roman Growth
Day 5: 2022-02-02 Th: 2.3. Inequality & Domination
Required: Clark 6;
Optional: Abigail Adams: Letter to John Adams; Aristotle: Politics, Book I; Brad DeLong: Lecture Notes on Inequality in Historical Perspective; Peter Temin: Land Tenure and Exploitation from the Roman Empire to Lord Peter Wimsey
Day 6: 2022-02-07 Tu & 2022-02-09 Th: 2.4. Slow Pre-Modern Innovation
Required: Clark 7; Moses Finley: Technical Innovation and Economic Progress in the Ancient World
Optional: the Anti-Kythera Device:
3. Cracking the Ice: Why the Hinge in 1870 in the Dover Circle?
Day 7: 2022-02-14 Tu: 3.1. Institutions
Required: Clark 8
Optional: William Baumol: Entrepreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, Destructive; Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels (1848): The Communist Manifesto; Christopher Berry (2018): Adam Smith: A Very Short Introduction, chs 1, 4-6
Day 8: 2022-02-16 Th: 3.2. Culture & 3.3. Psychology
Required: Clark 9
Optional: Joel Mokyr (1990): Lever of Riches, ch 5 The Years of Miracles; Nathan Nunn (2012): Culture and the Historical Process
Day 9: 2022-02-21 Tu: 3.4. On the Eve of the Industrial Revolution
Required: Allen 2, Clark 10
Optional: Ian Morris (2010): Why the West Rules–For Now, chapter 3: Taking the Measure of the Past; Allen 5-6; John Coatsworth (2008): Inequality, Institutions & Economic Growth in Latin America; Melissa Dell (2015): Path Dependence in Development: Evidence from the Mexican Revolution
4. Modern Economic Growth
Day 10: 2022-02-23 Th: 4.1. The Industrial Revolution Puzzle
Required: Allen 3
Optional: Allen 4; Robert Allen (2017): The Industrial Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, chs 3, 5-6; Clark 11-13;
Day 11: 2022-02-28 Tu: 4.2. The Uneven Spread of the Industrial Revolution
Required: David Landes (2006): Why Europe and the West? Why Not China?
Optional: Bateman & Weiss (1981): A Deplorable Scarcity: The Failure of Industrialization in the Slave Economy, ch 1
Day 12: 2022-03-02 Th: 4.3. The Coming of Modern Economic Growth
Required: DeLong 2
William Nordhaus: Do Real-Output and Real-Wage Measures Capture Reality?
Day 13: 2022-03-07 Tu: 4.4. Schumpeterian Creative-Destruction
Required: Robert Solow (1987): Growth Theory and After
Optional: DeLong 1; Clark 15; Allen 8; Peter Evans (1995): Embedded Autonomy: States & Industrial Transformation, ch 1; Laura Panza & Jeffrey Williamson (2015): Did Muhammad Ali Foster Industrialization in Early Nineteenth-Century Egypt?; Optional: Chalmers Johnson: MITI & the Japanese Miracle, selections;
Day 14: 2022-03-09 Th: 4.5. Post-Steampower Modes of Production & 4.6. The Mass-Production Economy
Day 15: 2022-03-14 Tu: 4.7. The Global Value-Chain Economy
Day 16: 2022-03-16 Th: 4.8. Global Divergence & 4.9. Convergence
Required: Robert Bates: When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa, ch. 6; Required: DeLong 4;
Optional: Lant Pritchett (1997): Divergence, Big Time; W. Arthur Lewis (1997): Evolution of the International Economic Order; Moses Abramovitz (1986): Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind; Chinua Achebe: Anthills of the Savannah; Robert Bates: When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa, chs. 3-5 & 7; DeLong 12; Clark 16-17; Allen 7; Brad DeLong (1986): Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: Comment; Dev Patel & al. (2019): Everything You Know about Cross-Country Convergence Is (Now) Wrong
2022-03-21 Tu: REVIEW
2022-03-23 Th: MIDTERM
5. The Political Economy of Modern Economic Growth
Day 17: 2022-04-04 Tu: 5.1. Social Consequences of the 20th Century Growth Explosion & 5.2.
Required: DeLong 9
Optional: DeLong 3, 5; Clark 14; W.E.B. Du Bois: The Souls of White Folk; The Comet
Day 18: 2022-04-06 Th: 5.2. Alternative Systems (
Required: DeLong 8
Optional: DeLong 10-11; Allen 9; Rick Ericson (1991): The Classical Soviet-Type Economy: Nature of the System and Implications for Reform; Yegor Gaidar: The Soviet Collapse: Grain & Oil
Day 19: 2022-04-11 Tu: 5.3. Making the New Deal Order
Required: DeLong 7
Optional: DeLong 6, 14 Brad DeLong & Barry Eichengreen: The Marshall Plan: History's Most Successful Structural Adjustment Program
Day 20: 2022-04-13 Th: The Workings of the New Deal Order
Required: DeLong 13
Optional: Ha-Joon Chang (2011): Kicking Away the Ladder: An Unofficial History of Capitalism, Especially in Britain & the United States;
Day 21: 2022-04-18 Tu: 5.4. Neoliberal Turn I
Required: DeLong 15
Optional: Delong, 16; Yingyi Qian (2001): How Reform Worked in China; Barry Naughton: The Rise of China’s Industrial Policy, 1978-2020; Nathan Nunn (2008): The Long Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades
Day 22: 2022-04-20 Th: Neoliberal Turn II
Required: DeLong 17
Optional: Robert Gordon: The Demise of U.S. Economic Growth: Restatement, Rebuttal, & Reflections; Simeon Djankov (2015): Russia's Economy under Putin: From Crony Capitalism to State Capitalism; Barry Eichengreen (2015): Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, The Great Recession, and the Uses-and Misuses-of History, selections
6. Conclusion
Day 23: 2022-04-25 Tu: 6.1. Future of Economic Growth
Required: Clark 18; Allen Epilogue; DeLong Conc.
Optional: Barry Eichengreen (2018): The Populist Temptation Economic Grievance & Political Reaction in the Modern Era, selections; John Maynard Keynes: Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren
Day 24: 2022-04-27 Th: 6.2. Review & Conclusion
Required: Marshal Burke & al.: Global Non-Linear Effect of Temperature on Economic Production
2023-05-08 Mo - 2023-05-12 Fr: FINAL EXAM
Grading: 120 points total
30 section
12 lecture participation
12 lecturer office hours
18 paper
18 midterm (if you miss the midterm, your final grade gets imputed to the midterm)
30 final (we will impute your midterm grade to the final if you wish to skip the final)
Miss midterm and final, you get an F or an I
Sections: Tu 1, Tu 2, Th 4
Grade inflation…
11 people on the panel; 2 times on the panel;
11 people for ten-minute office-hour appointments…
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