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

Lectures on Globalization

LECTURE 1- The First Globalization

LECTURE 2- The Second and Third Globalization

LECTURE 3-The Italian Great Migration

LECTURE 4- Globalizations and Income Distribution

Lectures on The great Battle between Government and Marketplace

LECTURE 5 - The great battle between government and marketplace: Regulatory state

LECTURE 6- The great battle between government and marketplace: State owned enterprises

LECTURE 7-The great battle between government and marketplace: the history of Welfare state.

Lectures on the History of Finance

LECTURE 8- Financial System and globalization: from gold standard to flexible exchange rate

LECTURE 9-Financial System and globalization: the history of stock exchanges and central banks

LECTURE 10-Finance over the second and third waves of globalization

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

Readings about Globalization

1. Richard E. Baldwin, 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. Matteo Gomellini and Cormac Ó Gráda, Migrations in The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy Since Unification, Edited by Gianni Toniolo, 2013
4. Branko Milanovic, Income inequality is cyclical, Nature, 22 September 2016, Vol. 537.

Reading about the Great battle between government and marketplace

5. 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

6. Pierangelo Toninelli, From private to public to private again: a long-term perspective on nationalization, Análise Social, vol. XLIII (4.º), 2008, 675-692

7. 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

Reading about the History of Finance

8. 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

9. Youssef Cassis, Capitals of capital: A history of International Financial Centres, 1780-2005, Oxford 2008, Chapter 6 Globalization and Financial Innovation, 1980-2005

10. Maurice Obstfeld, Alan M. Taylor, Globalization and Capital Markets, 2001

Assessment methods

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

There is a written exam composed of 6 open questions, covering the topics of the lectures. The mark for the written text is out of 30 points (5 points for each question), and the minimum required to pass the exam is 18/30.

At the end of the first part it will be possible to take the I MIDTERM EXAM and at the end of the second part the II MIDTERM EXAM.

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.

It is not possible to bring books, personal notes or electronic devices in the exam. 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.

 

It is not possible to bring books, personal notes or electronic devices in the exam. 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