Author Flashcards
(38 cards)
Who coined the term “Industrious Revolution” and what does it describe?
Jan de Vries – households extended work hours (including women & children) to afford new consumer goods, laying the cultural groundwork for factory discipline.
What hypothesis links high real wages and cheap energy to early mechanization in England?
Robert Allen’s High-Wages/Cheap-Energy Hypothesis – high urban real wages and abundant, cheap coal made capital-saving, labour-replacing machines especially profitable.
Which author highlights geography and disease as barriers to growth diffusion?
Jared Diamond – malaria, tsetse fly zones, and extreme climates curb agricultural productivity and human-capital formation.
Which scholars formulated the “rules of the game” framework distinguishing inclusive vs. extractive institutions?
Douglass North & Daron Acemoglu – institutions determine broad prosperity versus elite extraction.
Who quantified the “social savings” from 19th-century U.S. railroads, and what was his conclusion?
Robert Fogel – railroads modestly raised GDP but crucially integrated regional markets and reduced price gaps.
Which historian documented how 19th-century interchangeable parts spurred mass production?
Joel Mokyr – interchangeable parts and proto-assembly lines cut unit costs and enabled large-scale manufacturing.
Who defined the criteria for General Purpose Technologies (GPTs)?
Timothy Bresnahan & Manuel Trajtenberg – GPTs are pervasive, continuously improving, multi-applicative, and exhibit strong complementarities.
Which authors showed that steam power’s productivity impact surged after supporting infrastructure matured?
Charles Feinstein & E. A. Wrigley – early steam engines had modest effect until railways and steamships unlocked their potential.
Which economist introduced the “Preston Curve” relating GDP per capita to life expectancy?
Samuel Preston – gains in GDP per capita yield diminishing returns to life expectancy.
Who emphasized capabilities—health, education, freedoms—as central to development beyond GDP?
Amartya Sen – true development expands human capabilities, not just income.
Who introduced the concept of conditional convergence and social capabilities in catch-up growth?
Moses Abramovitz – large technology gaps and institutions/human capital enable rapid catch-up under conditional convergence.
Which theorist described late-industrializers’ use of state finance and tariffs to substitute for missing market prerequisites?
Alexander Gerschenkron – latecomers used banks and protectionism to overcome institutional gaps.
Who conceptualized the Price-Specie Flow Mechanism under the gold standard?
David Hume – trade deficits trigger gold outflows, contracting money and restoring competitiveness.
Which author detailed the Gold Standard’s “Rules of the Game” and their deflationary effects?
Barry Eichengreen – central banks defended gold by raising rates in deficits and lowering in surpluses, enforcing deflationary adjustments.
Which duo quantified the collapse in transport costs during first globalization?
Kevin O’Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson – steamship freight rates fell 70% and rail freight 60%, broadening markets and narrowing price gaps.
Who analyzed the “China Shock” effect of globalization on advanced economies?
David Autor, David Dorn & Gordon Hanson – offshoring to low-cost producers accelerated manufacturing job losses and regional polarization.
Who documented commodity boom export revenues of 150% in Latin America’s Belle Époque?
Victor Bulmer-Thomas – beef and wheat booms raised export revenues by 150% (1870–1900).
Which scholars argued factor endowments entrenched elites and blocked Latin American industrialization?
Stanley Engerman & Kenneth Sokoloff – factor endowments entrenched elites, blocking land reform and industrial linkages.
Who showed that the Fed’s refusal to provide liquidity deepened the Great Depression?
Milton Friedman & Anna Schwartz – Fed tightened money supply, causing a one-third collapse and turning recession into depression.
Which economist argued that gold-standard rigidity delayed necessary credit adjustments during the interwar crisis?
Friedrich Hayek – gold-standard rigidity delayed necessary liquidation of excess credit, worsening downturns.
Who analyzed the social savings and capital stock collapse during World Wars I & II?
Kevin O’Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson – WWI cut Europe’s per-capita capital by 25%; WWII plant overuse reduced manufacturing TFP by 5%.
Which historian measured the Marshall Plan’s effect on rebuilding Western Europe’s capital stock?
Deirdre McCloskey – Marshall Plan’s $13B aid rebuilt Western Europe’s capital to 35% above 1938 levels.
Who quantified Golden Age growth rates and convergence in Western Europe (1950–73)?
Nicholas Crafts – 1950–73 saw 4.6% p.a. per-capita growth, twice the pace of 1890–1913.
Which scholars highlighted the role of investment deepening and TFP variation in Golden Age growth?
Giovanni Federico & Giovanni Toniolo – investment deepening added ~0.5pp to annual growth; TFP gains varied by country.
