Description
Book SynopsisIn Cliometrics as Economics Imperialism, Ben Fine traces the cliometric revolution, from before its emergence through three phases of the new, the newer and the newest economic history. These phases are shown to correspond to those of “economics imperialism”, the colonisation of topics and fields by mainstream economics, moving successively through as if there were perfectly working markets, as if imperfectly working markets, and these combined plus arbitrary inclusion of other variables. The text draws upon case studies, for example of the putative eighteenth-century consumer revolution, Douglass North, path dependence, and the British coal industry, and through exposing the reduction of economic theory and economic history deployed within them and giving rise to a corresponding reduction in the presence of the social, the historical and political economy.
Table of ContentsPreface List of Figures and Tables 1 Economic History as Economics Imperialism: a Retrospective 1 The Personal Background 2 Cliometrics across the Watershed, from General Principles 3 … To Practice 4 Concluding Remarks 2 Consumerism and the Industrial Revolution Postscript as Personal Preamble 1 Introduction 2 Economic History through Which Looking Glass? 3 Is There a Supply and Demand for Industrial Revolution? 4 Economic Theory and the Consumerist Approach 5 Is Emphasis on Demand and Supply the Answer? 6 The Demand for Fashion in Clothes 7 Missing Markets 8 Production of Clothing 9 Persistence of Luxury Goods in Clothing 10 Concluding Remarks 3 Economies of Scale and a Featherbedding Cartel? A Reconsideration of the Interwar British Coal Industry Postscript as Personal Preamble 1 Introduction 2 Neither Economies of Scale … 3 … Nor Featherbedding Cartel 4 Royalties: the Unobserved Barking Dog 4 Coal, Diamonds and Oil: towards a Comparative Theory of Mining? Postscript as Personal Preamble i Introduction 2 Minerals and Landed Property 3 Cartels and Minerals 4 Concluding Remarks 5 Reflections on and from the Cliometric Revolution Postscript as Personal Preamble 1 Introduction 2 Cliometrics as Economics Imperialism 3 Discarding Dissent 4 Concluding Remarks 6 From Principle of Pricing to Pricing of Principle: Rationality and Irrationality in the Economic History of Douglass North Postscript as Personal Preamble 1 Introduction 2 From New to Newer Economic History 3 Shifting Vision of the Historian of the Western World 4 From Principle of Pricing to Pricing of Principle 5 Concluding Remarks 7 Douglass North’s Remaking of Economic History: a Critical Appraisal Postscript as Personal Preamble 1 Introduction 2 Theoretical Considerations 3 Making Economic History 4 Theoretical Considerations: a Critique 5 North’s Journey from Theory to History: a Critique 6 Transaction Costs in History: a Critique 7 Concluding Remarks 8 From New to Newer Economic History Postscript as Personal Preamble 1 Introduction 2 New and Improved: from as If Perfect to Imperfect Markets 3 Testing the New Product 4 Concluding Remarks 9 From qwerty to Microsoft and Beyond Postscript as Personal Preamble 1 Introduction 2 David and the Two Goliaths – Economics and History 3 Hayekian Revenge on Path Dependence 4 Culture, Institutions, Narrative and All That Jazz 5 Crafting the Newer Economic History 6 Finance before Financialisation 7 Concluding Remarks References Index
