Suchergebnisse

AEJ Policy will publish papers covering a range of topics, the common theme being the role of economic policy in economic outcomes. Subject areas will include public economics; urban and regional economics; public policy aspects of health, education, welfare, and political institutions; law and economics; economic regulation; and environmental and natural resource economics.

What is the relationship of economic history to the study of comparative economic systems? Perhaps the major contribution to thought on this subject has been made by Walter Eucken, whose ideas may be taken as the starting point for our discussion.

"The lessons of history" were widely invoked in 2008/09 as analysts and policymakers sought to make sense of the global financial crisis. Specifically, analogies with the early stages of the Great Depression of the 1930s were widely drawn. Building on work in cognitive science and literature on foreign policy making, this article seeks to account for the influence of this particular historical analogy and asks how it shaped both perceptions and the economic policy response. It asks how historical scholarship might be better organized to inform the process of economic policymaking. It concludes with some reflections on how research in economic history will be reshaped by the crisis.