INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC HISTORY

The course is designed for the second-year students of the degree in International Relations. The course provides the students with specific historical competences necessary to fulfil the requirements of the specialized curriculum in “Global Studies". First year students will attend classes with Prof. Vanni Pettinà.

The course aims at:
A. making students aware of the evolution of the international economy from early-modern to contemporary times, with a special focus on international trade, technological change and market integration.
B. introducing students to the most relevant methodological and theoretical scholarly debates in global and international economic history (new comparative economic history, business history, institutional economic history, international relations).
C. helping them to become aware of the interplay of geography, technological development, institutional factors, political forces in determining the wealth and poverty of the nations.
The objective of the course is to support students in becoming aware of historical complexities and develop a critical attitude towards ideological approaches. The course will provide students with the necessary theoretical instruments to critically examine the relationship between the policy prescriptions of economic theory and the historical framework of international relations.

Excellent level of written and oral English
Basic high school knowledge of early modern and modern history

Learning objectives

Knowledge and understanding
Students will gain insights and knowledge of historical international economic processes (international trade, technical development and market integration) from early modern to recent times.
Judgement ability
Students will acquire a basic understanding of micro and macro- economic models and of the scope and limitations of their use in reading and interpreting historical cases and phenomena.

Communication ability
Students will obtain in depth ability to:

A. critically analyze a scientific work and write about it,
B. discuss theoretical perspectives and historical interpretations and explanations,
C. test economic categories using historical case studies,
D. critically assess the validity and methodological accuracy of historical scientific texts

List of topics covered by the course
The course aims at introducing students to key debates in economic international history and at making students aware of the existence of different approaches and methodologies in the field (new economic history and new comparative economic history; institutional economic history, business history, history of technology and circulation; cultural turn in economic and business history; financial history).
Starting from 16th century, we will review groundbreaking articles on the meaning of globalization and of the Great Divergence in its historical origins and contemporary consequences; we will explore the role of technology and institutions on industrial development and global trade (Industrial Revolutions); the course will also offer some insights on the study of financial markets and their regulation (Gold Standard, Great Depression, the Bretton Wood System). In the second part, we will focus on the economic aspect of the Cold War, the role of the USSR and the consequences of its crisis on global markets (Oil and Gas, emergence of the Washington Consensus).

Textbook
- R. C. Allen, Global Economic History. A very Short Introduction, OUP, 2011

Articles and books of reference for the lessons, to be discussed by students during lessons:
- A. Amsden, The Rise of the Rest: Challenges to the West from Late Industrializing Economies, Oxford University Press, 2001.
- B.S. Bernanke, Nonmonetary effects of the Financial Crisis in the Propagation of the Great Depression, American Economic Review, 73(3), 1983: 257-276. (ISA) 9
- M. Bernstein, A Reassessment of Investment Failure in the Interwar American Economy, Journal of Economic History, 44(2), 1984: 479-488. (ISA)
- M. De Cecco, The International Gold Standard: Money and Empire, London: Pinter 1984, 254 pp. (ISA) 6
- J. De Vries, The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution, Journal of Economic History, 54(2), 1994: 249-270.
- B.J. Eichengreen, Exhorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2011, 224 pp. (LIB) 13
- J. Jones, Business History, the Great Divergence and the Great Convergence, HBS, Working Paper, 2017
- S. Kotkin, “The kiss of debt.” In The shock of the global: the 1970s in perspective, edited by Niall Ferguson, Charles S. Maier, Erez Manela and Daniel Sargent, 80–92. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010
- D. McCloskey and L. Sandberg, From Damnation to Redemption: Judgements on the later Victorian entrepreneur Explorations in Economic History; Fall 1971; 9, 1
- K. H. O'ROURKE and J. G. WILLIAMSON, When did Globalisation begin? European Review of Economic History, Vol. 6, No. 1 (APRIL 2002), pp. 23-50
- O. Sanchez-Sibony, Oscar. Red globalization: the political economy of the Soviet Cold War from Stalin to Khrushchev. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
- C. Schenk, The regulation of international financial markets from the 1950s to the 1990s, in S. Battilossi & J. Reis (eds.), State and Financial Systems in Europe and the USA: Historical Perspectives on Regulation and Supervision in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Farnham: Ashgate 2010, pp. 149-166. (ISA) 12
- A. Steiner, André. “The globalisation process and the Eastern bloc countries in the 1970s and 1980s.” European Review of History: Revue europeenne d’histoire 21:2 (2014): 165–181.

ATTENDING STUDENTS
Examination mode and Grading:
1) A Book Review will be handed by lesson 8 – 40%.
For the book review, the student will select a book form the provided list. Students must communicate to the instructor their choice by week 3. The review should be at least 10 pages typed, double spaced, Times New Romans, 12 in length. Reviews must include a short description of the content of the book, a summary of the most important arguments and a critique of the conclusions at the light of the book assumptions and on the basis of students’ previous knowledge of scientific literature from this course or other courses. The grade is based for 60% on the analytical part, it means on students’ motivated and grounded discussion on the coherency\ methodology\ innovativeness of the book (the mere summary of book contents does not allow students to reach 18/30 in this part of the exam).
Aim: the book review will allow students to go deeper in the study of a topic at their choice which is relevant to them and to their research interests. At the same time, it will allow the teacher to verify students’ ability to critically assess and analyze both structure and methodological accuracy of historical scientific texts as well as their writing skills.

2) Once every two weeks - moodle memos with summary of the reading\questions will be handed by Monday morning – 30% (1 justifications possible). Aim: moodle memos (MAX 300 WORDS) are needed to collect questions from students and to fuel class discussion on theoretical and methodological approaches and readings’ contents (basic notions) and to force students to critically approach the readings; at the same time, they will make the teacher aware of possible knowledge gaps or information integration required. They will allow the teacher to assess basic knowledge of readings’ content and basic critical observation skills.

3) Exam – Oral exam at the end of the course, it is based on the course’s readings, 2 conceptual questions, 15 minutes. Aim: this will allow the teacher to asses students’ overall achievement of the course’s objectives: in particular, their awareness of the key debates international economic history (according to the course’s priorities), their mastering of the most significant turning points, their grasping of theoretical instruments to critically examine different methodological approaches.

STUDENTS WHO ARE NOT ABLE TO HAND MEMOS AND BOOK REVIEW OR CAN NOT ATTEND CLASSES, WILL TAKE THE EXAM ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT MODALITIES\PROGRAM: ORAL EXAM
Exam program for non attending students
Students who choose not\ are not able to hand moodle memos and book review in due time will have the option of preparing the ORAL exam according to the following instructions:
A. Textbook:
Findlay and O’Rourke, Power and Plenty. Trade, War and the World Economy in the Second Millenium, Princeton, 2007, from chapter 4.
B. Readings of the course
C. Written book review of one monograph (chosen among the titles of the reading list on MOODLE) to be handed at least 1 week before the date of the exam.

Evaluation methods: oral exam (30 minutes each) to assess
1) basic knowledge of textbook’s and readings’ contents
2) students’ ability to orient themselves in the interplay between different factors (market forces, technology, political forces, geography, culture, finance) influencing global trade and wealth production.
3) awareness of different methodological and theoretical approaches to international economic history.
Still 30% of the grade will depend on the written book review.

Frontal teaching; coordinated class discussion on readings, online tests

English

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development