69065 - Economic history

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing students with an up-to-date understanding of the main aspects and trends of the world economy during the 20th and early 21st centuries. At the end of the course students should understand the origin of the most important economic institutions and the features of the economic cycles so far experienced by the world economy. Topics addressed in more detail will include the failure of the command economies, the construction of the European Union, the evolution and transformation of financial systems, the globalization, the regulation of labour market in different countries.

Course contents

The course is organized in two parts, the first taught by Vera Negri Zamagni and the second by Patrizia Battilani.

In the first part, the student will be offered a general overview of the evolution of the world economy across the XIXth and XXth centuries, with special focus on Europe.

The topics covered in the first part are the following:

1. The pre-industrial economy and the preparation of the industrial take-off
2. The British industrial revolution and the process of imitation
3. The second industrial revolution, the rise of the Usa and the gold standard
4. World War I and its effects
5. The 1929 crisis and World War II
6. Reconstruction and the new international economic order: Bretton Woods, IMF, Gatt, World Bank and the Marshall Plan
7. The golden age (1950s to 1973)
8. The process of economic integration in Europe
9. The return of instability and the financialization of the world
10. New protagonists: the rise of Asia.

In the second part, the student will have the opportunity to deepen his understanding of specific issues including the impact of the three waves of globalization on world economy, the role of state intervention in economic development, the relationship between economic growth and financial systems.

The topics covered in the second part are the following

1.The First Globalization

2.The anti-global backlash

3.The Second and Third wave of Globalization

4. Financial System and globalization: the history of stock exchanges and central banks Financial System and globalization: from gold standard to flexible exchange rate

5. Finance over the second and third waves of globalization

6. The impact of the third globalization: the case of Russia.

7. Globalizations and Income Distribution

8. The great battle between government and marketplace: the history of Welfare state.

9.The great battle between government and marketplace: Regulatory state

10.The great battle between government and marketplace: State owned enterprises

Readings/Bibliography

For the part taught by prof. Vera Zamagni the textbook is:

1) V. Zamagni, An economic history of Europe since 1700, Agenda, 2017.

For the part taught by Patrizia Battilani the reading list is

1. Richard E. Baldwin [http://www.nber.org/people/richard_baldwin], Philippe Martin [http://www.nber.org/people/philippe_martin], Two Waves of Globalisation: Superficial Similarities, Fundamental Differences, NBER Working Paper No. 6904, January 1999
2. Richard Baldwin,Misthinking Globalisation: Twentieth-Century Paradigms and Twenty First-Century Challenges, Australian economic history review,2014 vol:54
3. Harold James, International capital movements and the global order, in The Cambridge history of capitalism, Vol. II, The Spread of Capitalism from 1848 to the Present, edited by L. Neal and J.G. Williamson
4. Youssef Cassis, Capitals of capital: A history of International Financial Centres, 1780-2005, Oxford 2008, Chapter 6 Globalization and Financial Innovation, 1980-2005
5. Maurice Obstfeld, Alan M. Taylor, Globalization and Capital Markets, 2001
6. Branko Milanovic, Income inequality is cyclical, Nature, 22 September 2016, Vol. 537.
7. Peter Rutland, Neoliberalism and the Russian transition, Review of
8. International Political Economy, 20:2, 332-362,
9. M.T. Law and Sukkoo Kim, The rise of American Regulatory state: a view from the progressive era in Handbook on the Politics of Regulation, Edited by David Levi-Faur, 2013
10. Pierangelo Toninelli, From private to public to private again: a long-term perspective on nationalization, Análise Social, vol. XLIII (4.º), 2008, 675-692
11. P.H. Lindert, Private welfare and the welfare state, in The Cambridge history of capitalism, Vol. II, The Spread of Capitalism from 1848 to the Present, edited by L. Neal and J.G. Williamson

Assessment methods

The exam is aimed at evaluating the skills and the critical abilities developed by the students.

Due to the coronavirus epidemics, the in class written exam is substituted with two papers: one for each part of the course.

Instruction on how to prepare the two paper has been uploaded on Iol platform (see prof. Patrizia Battilani-Economic History)

If the exam mark is ≥ 18/30, it can be refused only once.

In case of refusal, the entire exam (Part 1 + Part 2) must be repeated, and the previous mark is canceled.

Registration for the exam is compulsory, and students have to register through [https://almaesami.unibo.it/almaesami/welcome.htm] according to the general rules of the School of Economics, Management and Statistics.

The mark is out of 30 points, and the minimum required to pass the exam is 18 / 30.

Office hours

See the website of Patrizia Battilani

See the website of Vera Negri