History Matters : Essays on Economic Growth, Technology, and Demographic Change

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. Path dependence and competitive equilibrium / Kenneth J. Arrow Path dependence and reswitching in a model of multi-technology adoption / Paul Stoneman Path dependence, network form, and technological change / Douglas J. Puffert The tension between strong history and strong economics / Melvin W. Reder Financial history and the long reach of the second Thirty-years' war / Charles W. Calomiris Path dependence in action : the adoption and persistence of the Korean model of economic development / Phillip Wonhyuk Lim Continuing confusion : entry prices in telecommunications / Peter Temin After the war boom : reconversion on the Pacific coast, 1943-1949 / Paul W. Rhode Standardization, diversity, and learning in China's nuclear power program / Geoffrey Rothwell Incentives, information, and welfare : England's new poor law and the workhouse test / Timothy Besley, Stephen Coate, and Timothy W. Guinnane Family matters : the life-cycle transition and the antebellum American fertility decline / Susan B. Carter, Roger L. Ransom, and Richard Sutch Building "universal service" in the early Bell system : the coevolution of regional urban systems and long-distance telephone networks / David F. Weiman International competition for technology investments : does national ownership matter? / Trond E. Olsen Conjectural estimates of economic growth in the lower south, 1720 to 1800 / Peter C. Mancall, Joshua L. Rosenbloom, and Thomas Weiss The value-added approach to the measurement of economic growth / Mark Thomas and Charles Feinstein A user's guide to the joys and pitfalls of cohort parity analysis / Warren C. Sanderson Stochastic dynamic optimization models with random effects in parameters : an application to age at marriage and life-cycle fertility control in France under the old regime / Thomas A. Mroz and David R. Weir. "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.""--Jacket 'The essays collected in this volume were, with two exceptions, presented at a conference in honor of Professor Paul A. David, held at Stanford University on June 2-3, 2000. The conference was sponsored by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)'-- p. [xiii].

“...a book which should be read by every economic historian with an interest in long-run institutional change and economic growth.”—EH.Net

Paul David has been a pioneer and innovator in so many directions that it is hard to keep track of them all.