IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/qucehw/202209.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic history and the future of pedagogy in economics

Author

Listed:
  • Brownlow, Graham
  • Colvin, Christopher L.

Abstract

Economic history is integral to the study of economics and economies. Besides providing students with a valuable long-run perspective on the modern world, the field also helps them to better understand the contingency of economic theory. Despite a newfound interest in economic history among economists, teaching and learning in economic history at undergraduate level varies enormously across the UK. We review the different types of economic history provisioning in UK universities, account for the trends we document, and set out viable options for reform. We advance the idea that the teaching of economic history can be integrated into other higher-level undergraduate field courses, an approach we call "Teaching Economics With Economic History". We end by focusing on economic history teaching within the context of business schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Brownlow, Graham & Colvin, Christopher L., 2022. "Economic history and the future of pedagogy in economics," QUCEH Working Paper Series 22-09, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:qucehw:202209
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/263270/1/1814911685.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Working Papers 834, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    2. Andrew Mearman & Danielle Guizzo & Sebastian Berger, 2018. "Whither Political Economy? Evaluating the CORE Project as a Response to Calls for Change in Economics Teaching," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 241-259, April.
    3. Persson,Karl Gunnar & Sharp,Paul, 2015. "An Economic History of Europe," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107479388, July.
    4. Martina Cioni & Giovanni Federico & Michelangelo Vasta, 2020. "The long-term evolution of economic history: evidence from the top five field journals (1927–2017)," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 14(1), pages 1-39, January.
    5. Colvin, Christopher L. & Winfree, Paul, 2019. "Applied history, applied economics, and economic history," QUCEH Working Paper Series 2019-07, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    6. David Genesove & Wallace P. Mullin, 2001. "Rules, Communication, and Collusion: Narrative Evidence from the Sugar Institute Case," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 379-398, June.
    7. Mark Blaug, 2001. "Is Competition Such a Good Thing? Static Efficiency versus Dynamic Efficiency," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 19(1), pages 37-48, August.
    8. Coase, R H, 1974. "The Lighthouse in Economics," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 357-376, October.
    9. Sheila Dow, 2009. "History of Thought and Methodology in Pluralist Economics Education," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 8(2), pages 41-57.
    10. Filippo Cesarano, 2006. "Economic history and economic theory," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 447-467.
    11. Graham Brownlow, 2016. "Soft budget constraints and regional industrial policy: reinterpreting the rise and fall of DeLorean," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 40(6), pages 1497-1515.
    12. Price Fishback & Michael Haupert, 2022. "The rich palette of the economic history curriculum," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 165-173, March.
    13. Colvin, Christopher L. & McLaughlin, Eoin, 2021. "Death, demography and the denominator: Age-adjusted Influenza-18 mortality in Ireland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    14. Nathan Nunn, 2008. "The Long-term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(1), pages 139-176.
    15. Schumpeter, Joseph A., 1947. "The Creative Response in Economic History," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 149-159, November.
    16. Matthias Blum & Christopher L. Colvin (ed.), 2018. "An Economist’s Guide to Economic History," Palgrave Studies in Economic History, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-3-319-96568-0, December.
    17. McCloskey, Donald N, 1976. "Does the Past Have Useful Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 434-461, June.
    18. Fliers, Philip T. & Colvin, Christopher L., 2022. "Going Dutch: monetary policy in the Netherlands during the interwar gold standard, 1925–1936," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(2), pages 121-151, August.
    19. Eichengreen, Barry & Park, Donghyun & Shin, Kwanho, 2021. "The shape of recovery: Implications of past experience for the duration of the COVID-19 recession," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    20. Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert (ed.), 2016. "Handbook of Cliometrics," Springer Books, Springer, edition 1, number 978-3-642-40406-1, December.
    21. Federico, Giovanni & Bisin, Alberto, 2021. "Merger or acquisition? An introduction to the Handbook of Historical economics," CEPR Discussion Papers 15795, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    22. repec:fth:prinin:455 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 69-85, Fall.
    24. Joshua Angrist & Alan Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Working Papers 834, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    25. Temin, Peter & Vines, David, 2014. "Keynes: Useful Economics for the World Economy," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026202831x, December.
    26. Abramitzky, Ran, 2015. "Economics and the Modern Economic Historian," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(4), pages 1240-1251, December.
    27. Ran Abramitzky, 2015. "Economics and the Modern Economic Historian," NBER Working Papers 21636, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    28. Coase, R H, 2000. "The Acquisition of Fisher Body by General Motors," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(1), pages 15-31, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Martina Cioni & Govanni Federico & Michelangelo Vasta, 2018. "Ninety years of publications in Economic History: evidence from the top five field journals (1927-2017)," Department of Economics University of Siena 791, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    2. Martina Cioni & Giovanni Federico & Michelangelo Vasta, 2023. "Is economic history changing its nature? Evidence from top journals," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(1), pages 23-48, January.
    3. Martina Cioni & Giovanni Federico & Michelangelo Vasta, 2020. "The long-term evolution of economic history: evidence from the top five field journals (1927–2017)," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(1), pages 1-39, January.
    4. Lino Wehrheim, 2019. "Economic history goes digital: topic modeling the Journal of Economic History," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 13(1), pages 83-125, January.
    5. Martina Cioni & Giovanni Federico & Michelangelo Vasta, 2021. "The State of the Art of Economic History: The Uneasy Relation with Economics," Working Papers 20210067, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jun 2021.
    6. Carlo Ciccarelli & Torben Dall Schmidt, 2022. "The impact of history on regional development," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 42(3), pages 219-225, December.
    7. Lino Wehrheim, 2017. "Economic History Goes Digital: Topic Modeling the Journal of Economic History," Working Papers 177, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    8. Mark Carlson & Kris James Mitchener, 2009. "Branch Banking as a Device for Discipline: Competition and Bank Survivorship during the Great Depression," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(2), pages 165-210, April.
    9. Ilona Babenko & Benjamin Bennett & John M Bizjak & Jeffrey L Coles & Jason J Sandvik, 2023. "Clawback Provisions and Firm Risk," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 191-239.
    10. Ma, Lingjie & Koenker, Roger, 2006. "Quantile regression methods for recursive structural equation models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 134(2), pages 471-506, October.
    11. KAMKOUM, Arnaud Cedric, 2023. "The Federal Reserve’s Response to the Global Financial Crisis and its Effects: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis of the Impact of its Quantitative Easing Programs," Thesis Commons d7pvg, Center for Open Science.
    12. Messer, Dolores & Wolter, Stefan C., 2005. "Are Student Exchange Programs Worth It?," IZA Discussion Papers 1656, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Aaron Jackson & William Miles, 2008. "Fixed Exchange Rates and Disinflation in Emerging Markets: How Large Is the Effect?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 144(3), pages 538-557, October.
    14. Berthélemy Michel & Bonev Petyo & Dussaux Damien & Söderberg Magnus, 2019. "Methods for strengthening a weak instrument in the case of a persistent treatment," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 23(1), pages 1-30, February.
    15. Fali Huang & Myoung-Jae Lee, 2010. "Dynamic treatment effect analysis of TV effects on child cognitive development," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 392-419.
    16. Vitalis, Kyriacos & Stefanidis, Dimosthenis & Pallis, George & Dikaiakos, Marios & Nicolaou, Nicos & Nicolaides, Christos, 2024. "Quantifying the impact of online social networks on the success of entrepreneurs," OSF Preprints x6vda_v1, Center for Open Science.
    17. Richard Harris & John Moffat, 2011. "R&D, Innovation and Exporting," SERC Discussion Papers 0073, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    18. Hope Corman & Dhaval Dave & Nancy E. Reichman, 2018. "Evolution of the Infant Health Production Function," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(1), pages 6-47, July.
    19. Steven A. Boutcher & Jason N. Houle & Anna Raup‐Kounovksy & Carroll Seron, 2023. "A Faustian bargain? Rethinking the role of debt in law students' career choices," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 166-195, March.
    20. Wu, Fang & Cao, June & Zhang, Xiaosan, 2023. "Do non-executive employees matter in curbing corporate financial fraud?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic history; pedagogy; undergraduate curriculum;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A22 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Undergraduate
    • B20 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - General
    • N01 - Economic History - - General - - - Development of the Discipline: Historiographical; Sources and Methods

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:qucehw:202209. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/chqubuk.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.