Suchergebnisse

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- I History -- 1 The Impact of Administrative Power on Political and Economic Developments: Toward a Political Economy of Implementation -- 2 The Institutional Origins of the Industrial Revolution -- 3 Institutions and the Resource Curse in Early Modern Spain -- 4 Slavery, Inequality, and Economic Development in the Americas: An Examination of the Engerman-Sokoloff Hypothesis -- 5 Economic and Political Inequality in Development: The Case of Cundinamarca, Colombia -- II Theory -- 6 The Constitutional Choice of Bicameralism -- 7 Economic Development, Insurgency, and Civil War -- 8 Party Discipline and Pork-Barrel Politics -- 9 Policy Persistence in Multiparty Parliamentary Democracies -- III Contemporary Evidence -- 10 Formalizing Informal Institutions -- 11 Making Autocracy Work -- 12 Democracy, Technology, and Growth -- 13 The Growth Effect of Democracy: Is It Heterogenous and How Can It Be Estimated? -- List of Contributors -- Author Index -- Subject Index

Combining theoretical work with careful historical description and analysis of new data sources, History Matters makes a strong case for a more historical approach to economics, both by argument and by example. Seventeen original essays, written by distinguished economists and economic historians, use economic theory and historical cases to explore how and why "history matters." The chapters, which range in subject matter from the economic theory of irreversible investment to the nineteenth-century decline in U.S. rural fertility to the English poor law reform, are unified by three themes. The first explores the significance, causes, and consequences of path dependence in the evolution of technology and institutions. The second relates to the ways in which economic and political behavior are profoundly shaped and constrained by the cultural and political context inherited from history at a particular point in time. The final theme demonstrates the importance of integrating economic theory into historical research in the gathering and interpretation of data