Economics 210:
20th Century
Spring 2009
OMANEX 304 MWF 10:40-11:30
Handouts:
January 12: Final paper guidelines Template for summaries of readings Ideas and Suggestions for Good Writing IMF paper on Regressions
Prof Woolf
339 Old Mill 656-0190 arthur.woolf@uvm.edu
Office Hours: MWF 3:00 - 4:30 and by appointment
class syllabus available at www.uvm.edu/~awoolf
and follow the links or www.uvm.edu/~awoolf/classes/spring2009/ec210/ec210syllabus.html
Overview:
This course is a
chronological and topical approach to economic issues of the twentieth
century. The goal of this course is to help you understand how the
The course will begin
with a general overview of the causes and consequences economic growth, the
contribution economic historians have made to our understanding of the past
(and how we got to where we are today), and we will set the stage by discussing
what the economy looked like at the turn of the century. The course will
examine broad contours of changes that influenced the economy at the turn of
that century. We will then turn to the 1920s and examine structural
changes that occurred during the decade and examine weaknesses that made that
decade a prelude to the Great Depression. The Great Depression is
probably the defining economic event of the twentieth century. The New
Deal, the government's response to the Depression, has as its legacy many
programs and policies that still underpin the
Nearly all of the readings
for this class are available online and most through JSTOR. It is easier
to access JSTOR through a UVM-based computer than from a home computer, but not
impossible. It will be to your advantage
to download the files and then print them in order to read and take notes on
them. You will be expected to read
the articles before the class period. You are required to fill out
and hand in a summary sheet on each article, and teams of 2 students will
present a short summary of each article and help lead class discussion. You
can choose any articles or chapters except those noted with a “*”.
You will need to read
John Kenneth Galbraith’s The
Great Crash: 1929, which can be purchased on line.
Grading:
Grades for the class
will be based on a combination of journal summaries, class participation, and a
final paper. Part of the class participation grade may be based on
unannounced in-class quizzes. The quizzes will be based on the readings
due for that day.
Final paper: 40%
Journal summaries: 40%
Class Participation 20%
Journal
summaries: You must hand in a journal
summary sheet for each article that is discussed in class. (Articles that you cannot do a summary sheet
on are noted with a ‘*”. I will only
accept the summaries at the beginning of the class period when they are
discussed. I will drop the three lowest
grades, which means you can elect not to do three summaries. The
format for the summaries will be on the class website.
For
each day any written assignment is late your grade will be reduced by 10%. One day is defined as anywhere between 1
minute and 24 hours after the due date and time.
Course Introduction
Jan
12
Overview of the
Jan
14, 16
*Cox,
William. and Alm, Richard, Time Well
Spent: The Declining Real Cost of Living in America, 1997 Annual
Report, Federal Reserve Bank of
*Brad
DeLong, Slouching Toward Utopia: The Shape of Twentieth Century History (1998),
Easterlin, Richard, The
Worldwide Standard of Living Since 1800, J Economic Perspectives,
Winter 2000, 7-26
David Cutler, The Role
of Public Health Improvements in Health Advances: The 20th Century United
States Demography (2005)
Globalization and
Growth
Jan 21, 23, 26
*Ben Bernanke, Global
Economic Integration: What's New and What's Not? (2006)
Michael Bordo, Barry Eichengreen, Doug Irwin: Is
Globalization Today Really Different Than Globalization One Hundred Years Ago?
(1999) pp 1-52.
Williamson, Jeffrey, Globalization, Labor Markets, and Policy Backlash in the Past, Journal of Economic Perspectives (1998)
Education, Labor, and Race in
the Early 20th Century
Jan 28, 30, Feb 2
Jennifer Roback (1986), The
Political Economy of Segregation: The Case of Segregated Streetcars,
Journal of Economic History, December 1986, pp. 893-917
Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz (1999). Human Capital and Social Capital: The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America, 1910-1940, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Financing Big
Government in the Twentieth Century
Feb
4, 6
Wallis,
John, American Government Finance
in the Long Run, J Economic Perspectives,
Winter 2000, 61-82
Baack,
Bennett and Ray, Edwin, Special
Interests and the Adoption of the Income Tax in the U.S., J Economic
History, September 1985, 607-625
The 1910s and 1920s:
Macro and Micro Issues
Feb 9-18
Jeffrey Miron and Jeffrey
Swiebel, Alcohol Consumption
During Prohibition, American Economic Review (1991)
Raff,
Daniel, Wage Determination Theory
and the Five Dollar Day at Ford, J Economic History, June 1988, 387-99
Collins, William, When the Tide Turned: Immigration and the Delay of the Great Black Migration, J Economic History, September 1997, 607-632
Werner Troesken, Race,
Disease, and the Provision of Water in American Cities 1889-1921 (2000)
Alston,
Lee, Farm Foreclosures in the United States
During the Interwar Period, JEH, December 1983, 885-903
The Great Crash
Feb 20-27
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929 (book)
Ch 1-3
Ch 4-6
Ch 7-9
Eugene White (1990), “The Stock Market Boom and the Crash of 1929,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 4:2 (Spring), pp. 67-83
Christina Romer (1990): "The Great Crash and the Onset of the Great Depression," Quarterly Journal of Economics 105:3 (August), pp. 597-624.
The Great Depression
and the New Deal
March
2-20
Romer,
Christina, The
Nation in Depression, J Economic Perspectives, Spring 1993, 19-39
Wright,
Gavin, The
Political Economy of New Deal Spending, Review of Economics and
Statistics, 1974, 30-38
Price Fishback, William Horrace, and Shawn Kantor, Did
New Deal Grant Programs Stimulate Local Economies? A Study of Federal
Grants and Retail Sales During the Great Depression, J Economic History
(2005) pp.36-71
*Greg Ip, Long
Study of the Great Depression has Shaped Bernanke's Views, Wall Street
Journal, December 25, 2005
Christina Romer, What Ended the Great Depression? J Economic History (1992)
David Wheelock, The Federal Response to Home Mortgage Distress: Lessons From the Great Depression (2008)
World War II and the
End of the Depression
Mar
23
Higgs,
Robert, Wartime
Prosperity? A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in the 1940s, J
Economic History, March 1992, 41-60
Post War Economic History: Health and
Social Issues
Mar 25-27
Claudia Goldin, The
Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women's Employment, Education, and Family,
American Economic Review (2006), pp1-21.
Recent Economic History: Causes and Consequences of the Financial Meltdown
March 30 –
April 27
The Economic History of the Future
April 29
*Robert Fogel, Reconsidering Expectations of Economic Growth After World War II From the Perspective of 2004