Economic History course for Phd in Economics (14 hours)

Tuesday 3rd April 2018: 14-16
Michelangelo Vasta
The geography of innovation in Italy, 1861-1913: evidence from patent data
Topic: Innovation

Thursday 10th May 2018: 11-13
Michelangelo Vasta
The origins of the Italian regional divide: evidence from real wages, 1861-1913
Topic: Standard of living

Thursday 18th May 2018: 16-18
Michelangelo Vasta
Can school centralization foster human capital accumulation? A quasi-experiment from early-20th-century Italy
Topic: Human capital

Monday 21st May 2018: 11-13
Giovanni Federico
Reconciling the irreconcilable: real wages, gdp and the plight of the poor, 1300-1913 Topic: Inequality

Monday 28th May 2018: 11-13
Giovanni Federico
The terms of trade during the first globalization: an empirical analysis
Topic: Trade

Friday 1st June 2018: 11-13
Alessandro Nuvolari (Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa)
Innovation, Localized Knowledge Spillovers and the British Industrial Revolution, 1700-1850
Topic: Innovation

Monday 4th June 2018: 11-13
Giovanni Federico
A tale of two globalizations: gains from trade and openness 1800-2010
Topic: Trade

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%).