IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/soa/wpaper/93.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

New and Improved: Economics' Contribution to Business History

Author

Listed:
  • Ben Fine

    (Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK)

Abstract

The relationship between economics and history has always been uneasy not least since the marginalist revolution of the 1870s laid down the foundations for contemporary mainstream economics. The tension between the two disciplines is not difficult to understand. Quite apart from differences in style and research methods which divide all disciplines, the dull concern of the dismal science with patterns of supply and demand seem too far removed from historical themes and how societies evolve and change over extended periods. Nor do standard assumptions within economics endear it to historians, with resources, technology and preferences taken as exogenous. An uncomfortable accommodation between the disciplines had been reached with the emergence of the new economic history. The success of cliometrics has been significant but limited by its failure to remove beyond what are generally perceived to be severe limitations of neoclassical economics, especially in studying historical themes. Over the past two decades, however, economic theory has itself begun to address some of these deficiencies, albeit on its own terms. By stressing market imperfections, especially those derived from informational imperfections by way of theoretical novelty, mainstream economics has purported not only to eschew dependence on models of perfect competition, but also to be able to broach non-market and non-economic factors such as institutions and collective and customary behaviour. Not surprisingly, this has led to a renewed assault upon history by economics and its representatives within economic history.

Suggested Citation

  • Ben Fine, 1999. "New and Improved: Economics' Contribution to Business History," Working Papers 93, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    • Handle: RePEc:soa:wpaper:93
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.soas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/economics-wp093.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. North, Douglass C, 1994. "Economic Performance through Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 359-368, June.
    2. Naomi R. Lamoreaux & Daniel M. G. Raff & Peter Temin, 1999. "Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number lamo99-1.
    3. Naomi R. Lamoreaux & Daniel Raff & Peter Temin, 1999. "Introduction to "Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries"," NBER Chapters, in: Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries, pages 1-18, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Peter Temin, 1991. "Inside the Business Enterprise: Historical Perspectives on the Use of Information," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number temi91-1.
    5. Naomi R. Lamoreaux & Daniel M. G. Raff, 1995. "Coordination and Information: Historical Perspectives on the Organization of Enterprise," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number lamo95-1.
    6. Ben Fine, 1999. "Competition and Market Structure Reconsidered," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 194-218, June.
    7. Hodgson, Geoffrey M & Rothman, Harry, 1999. "The Editors and Authors of Economics Journals: A Case of Institutional Oligopoly?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(453), pages 165-186, February.
    8. Ben Fine, 1998. "Endogenous Growth Theory: A Critical Assessment," Working Papers 80, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    9. Crafts, N. F. R., 1995. "Exogenous or Endogenous Growth? The Industrial Revolution Reconsidered," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(4), pages 745-772, December.
    10. Peter Temin, 1991. "Introduction to "Inside the Business Enterprise: Historical Perspectives on the Use of Information"," NBER Chapters, in: Inside the Business Enterprise: Historical Perspectives on the Use of Information, pages 1-6, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Heaton, Herbert, 1965. "Twenty-Five Years of the Economic History Association: A Reflective Evaluation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(4), pages 465-479, December.
    12. Redlich, Fritz, 1965. "“New” and Traditional Approaches to Economic History and Their Interdependence," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(4), pages 480-495, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ben Fine, 1999. "Consumption for Historians: An Economist's Gaze," Working Papers 91, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    2. Ben Fine, 1999. "Whither the Welfare State: Public versus Private Consumption?," Working Papers 92, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rojas, Angela Milena, 2007. "Cliometría: Una comunidad científica en el pseudo-mercado del conocimiento (1957-2006)," Revista Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, CIE, May.
    2. Guinnane, Timothy W., 2001. "Delegated Monitors, Large and Small: The Development of Germany's Banking System, 1800-1914," Center Discussion Papers 28447, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    3. Naomi R. Lamoreaux & Daniel Raff & Peter Temin, 1999. "Introduction to "Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries"," NBER Chapters, in: Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries, pages 1-18, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Fine, B., 2000. "Bringing the Social Back into Economies: Progress or Reductionism?," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 731, The University of Melbourne.
    5. Diwas Singh KC & Bradley R. Staats, 2012. "Accumulating a Portfolio of Experience: The Effect of Focal and Related Experience on Surgeon Performance," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(4), pages 618-633, October.
    6. Ben Fine, 1999. "Consumption for Historians: An Economist's Gaze," Working Papers 91, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    7. Tiago Sequeira, 2004. "Mortality Rate and Property Rights in a Model with Human Capital and R&D," Development and Comp Systems 0408010, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Arjan van Rooij, 2012. "Claim and control: The functions of patents in the example of Berkel , 1898--1948," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(7), pages 1118-1141, October.
    9. Andrew Alexander, 2015. "Decision-making authority in British supermarket chains," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(4), pages 614-637, June.
    10. Charlie Karlsson, 2011. "Clusters, Networks and Creativity," Chapters, in: David Emanuel Andersson & Åke E. Andersson & Charlotta Mellander (ed.), Handbook of Creative Cities, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Daniel Raff & Peter Temin, 1999. "Sears, Roebuck in the Twentieth Century: Competition, Complementarities, and the Problem of Wasting Assets," NBER Chapters, in: Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries, pages 219-252, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Kenneth Patrick Vincent O'Sullivan & Stephen Kinsella, 2013. "Financial and regulatory failure: The case of Ireland," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, January.
    13. Marc Flandreau & Juan Flores & Norbert Gaillard & Sebastian Nieto-Parra, 2011. "The Changing Role of Global Financial Brands in the Underwriting of Foreign Government Debt (1815-2010)," IHEID Working Papers 15-2011, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    14. Gianni Guastella & Frank G. van Oort, 2015. "Regional Heterogeneity and Interregional Research Spillovers in European Innovation: Modelling and Policy Implications," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(11), pages 1772-1787, November.
    15. Carsten Burhop & Thorsten Lübbers, 2012. "The design of licensing contracts: Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and electrical engineering in imperial Germany," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(4), pages 574-593, January.
    16. Philipp Ager & Markus Brueckner, 2018. "Immigrants' Genes: Genetic Diversity And Economic Development In The United States," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(2), pages 1149-1164, April.
    17. Hugo van Driel & Irma Bogenrieder, 2009. "Memory and learning: Selecting users in the port of Rotterdam, 1883-1900," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(5), pages 649-667.
    18. Giovanni Guastella & Frank van Oort, 2011. "On specifying heterogeneity in knowledge production functions," ERSA conference papers ersa11p1114, European Regional Science Association.
    19. Petra Moser & Tom Nicholas, 2013. "Prizes, Publicity and Patents: Non-Monetary Awards as a Mechanism to Encourage Innovation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 763-788, September.
    20. Gerben Bakker, 2005. "The decline and fall of the European film industry: sunk costs, market size, and market structure, 1890–1927," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 58(2), pages 310-351, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:soa:wpaper:93. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chandni Dwarkasing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desoauk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.