The main idea of this course is to present a broad introduction to different fields of research – both on macroeconomic and microeconomic perspective – which actually are at the frontier of Economic History. The course focuses on four different broad topics. Another aim of the course is to introduce students to the discussion of virtues and limitations of different historical sources and methodologies.
Wednesday 20th April 2016: 16-18
Francesco Cinnirella – The Cost of Decentralization: Linguistic Polarization and the Provision of Education
Topic: Human capital
Thursday 5th May 2016: 11-13
Michelangelo Vasta – The geography of innovation in Italy, 1861-1913: evidence from patent data
Topic: Innovation
Monday 9th May 2016: 16-18
Giovanni Federico – A tale of two globalizations: openness and gains from trade
Topic: Trade
Monday 16th May 2016: 11-13
Alessandro Nuvolari (Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa) – “Uniting Souls” and counting skills: age heaping in the first Italian national censuses, 1861-1881
Topic: Human capital
Monday 23th May 2016: 16-18
Giovanni Federico – The agricultural roots of the gender gap: evidence from Italy
Topic: Trade
Thursday 26th May 2016: 11-13
Michelangelo Vasta – What makes a successful entrepreneur? Historical evidence from Italy (XIX-XX centuries)
Topic: Entrepreneurship
The “rules of the game” of the course are the following. First of all the course requires your active role in the discussion of the seminars. What I mean is that you make direct questions to the speakers during the seminars. Moreover, each student must write one extended Review Report (RR) for one of the paper presented. The RR should be articulated as follow: i) discuss context and research questions; ii) assess source, historical material and data; iii) provide a discussion of approach and methods; iv) suggest improvements and refinements for the analysis. Finally, all students have to organize themselves in groups (2 students, max 3) and prepare an Economic History Research Project (RP) which must contain: i) a well-defined research question; ii) sources to be used; iii) methods; iv) conclusions.
Final evaluation will be based on class participation (25%) and on the quality of RRs (25%) and RP (50%).
