- Docente: Vera Negri
- Credits: 5
- SSD: SECS-P/12
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Economics (cod. 0898)
Learning outcomes
The course provides a general overview of the economic development of Europe since the Industrial Revolution. It discusses why the Industrial Revolution took place in Europe, and Great Britain was first; how industrialization spread; the basic features of the new international economy; the role of technological change and the patterns of finance; the birth of large corporations and fordism; the impact of XX century wars and crises and the change in world economic leadership; reconstruction after the II world war and the design of European integration.
Course contents
Class topics are organized as follows:
1. Why Europe produced the Industrial Revolution and Great Britain was first
2. Models of imitation of the British Industrial Revolution, the role of substitutable factors and
path dependence
3. The successful take off of inner Europe (France and Germany)
4. The difficulties of the periphery (The Hapsburgh Monarchy, Italy, Russia)
5. The international economy in the XIXth century in the heyday of the gold standard
6. Technological regimes, the rise of big corporations and fordism
7. British decline, the dawn of the American power and the slow take off of Japan.
8. The economic and social effects of WWI and the role of the US
9. The 1929 crisis and its impact on the major European countries and the USA
10. The economic effects of WWII, the Marshall Plan, reconstruction and the “golden age”
Readings/Bibliography
R. Cameron- L. Neal, A concise economic history of the world from paleolithic times to the present, Oxford, OUP, 2002 (ch. 7-15)
OR
E. Damsgaard Hansen, European Economic History, Copenhagen Business School Press, 2001 (ch. 3-13)
C.Feinstein, P.Temin, G.Toniolo, The European Economy Between the Wars, OUP, 1997.
Teaching methods
A critical analysis of the existing literature on the topics concerned will be offered.
Assessment methods
A written 2 hours exam with 3 essay questions or a term scholarly paper of no less than 3500 words.
Office hours
See the website of Vera Negri