Economics and the Modern Economic Historian /
Abramitzky, Ran.
Economics and the Modern Economic Historian / Ran Abramitzky. - Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2015. - 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white); - NBER working paper series no. w21636 . - Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w21636. .
October 2015.
I reflect on the role of modern economic history in economics. I document a substantial increase in the percentage of papers devoted to economic history in the top-5 economic journals over the last few decades. I discuss how the study of the past has contributed to economics by providing ground to test economic theory, improve economic policy, understand economic mechanisms, and answer big economic questions. Recent graduates in economic history appear to have roughly similar prospects to those of other economists in the economics job market. I speculate how the increase in availability of high quality micro level historical data, the decline in costs of digitizing data, and the use of computationally intensive methods to convert large-scale qualitative information into quantitative data might transform economic history in the future.
System requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Economics and the Modern Economic Historian / Ran Abramitzky. - Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2015. - 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white); - NBER working paper series no. w21636 . - Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w21636. .
October 2015.
I reflect on the role of modern economic history in economics. I document a substantial increase in the percentage of papers devoted to economic history in the top-5 economic journals over the last few decades. I discuss how the study of the past has contributed to economics by providing ground to test economic theory, improve economic policy, understand economic mechanisms, and answer big economic questions. Recent graduates in economic history appear to have roughly similar prospects to those of other economists in the economics job market. I speculate how the increase in availability of high quality micro level historical data, the decline in costs of digitizing data, and the use of computationally intensive methods to convert large-scale qualitative information into quantitative data might transform economic history in the future.
System requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.