Selftest 2: The period after 1850

Question 1

Name some ways increased agricultural productivity can contribute to overall economic change

Answer 1

Labour for industry, a market for industry, capital for other sectors

Question 2

Name some important technological innovations in the late 19th century

Answer 2

Electricity, petrol based innovations, cheap steel

Question 3

In what industry was science truly important for innovation in the late 19th century?

Answer 3

Chemical industries

Question 4

Why did Britain perform relatively poorly concerning gdp/cap 1870-1913?

Answer 4

Entrepreneurial failure, backwardness of education, dependence on relatively free trade

Question 5

The US economy was until the late 19th century slightly different from Europe in one regard

Answer 5

Higher real wages and better standard of living due to scarcity of labour

Question 6

Name some characteristics of the industrialization of Germany in the late 19th century

Answer 6

Relatively large importance of chemical industries, large size of firms, cartels

Question 7

Why is the Cobden-Chevalier treaty of 1860 important?

Answer 7

It was a trade treaty between France and Britain that decreased trade regulations

Question 8

What is particular of the Meiji Restoration in Japan in the late 19th century?

Answer 8

Rapid change from the feudal traditions to modern industrial organization

Question 9

In what way did the Opium War in China (1838-1842) have economic consequences?

Answer 9

It forced China to accept better trade terms for Britain and later other European nations

Question 10

Name some signs of “globalization backlash” in the early 20th century

Answer 10

High tariffs, restrictions to immigration, increased reliance on domestic saving

Question 11

What may have been the largest long run economic damage of WW1?

Answer 11

The disruption of previous economic relations

Question 12

What is the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930?

Answer 12

A US tariff act that spawned similar replies from other countries

Question 13

What are the two major explanations to the depression in the 1930s?

Answer 13

A drastic decline in the quantity of money and a fall of consumption and investments

Question 14

Name some long term effects of the depression of the 1930s

Answer 14

The growth of government involvement in the economy and the rise of import-substitution in the Third World

Question 15

What is the “new deal” in the US in the 1930s?

Answer 15

A program for economic and social recovery in the US

Question 16

What is the Soviet “NEP” in the 1920s?

Answer 16

A policy were market production was re-introduced

Question 17

Name some characteristics of the organization of the Postwar economy in Western Europe

Answer 17

Increased focus on national and international economic planning and the rise of social-democratic political influence

Question 18

What was the “Marshall Plan” of the late 1940s?

Answer 18

An effort from the US to support re-construction of the European economy

Question 19

What is the COMECON in the late 1940s?

Answer 19

An economic union in East Europe led by Soviet Russia

Question 20

What factors benefitted Japan leading to rapid economic growth post Second World War?

Answer 20

Investing in the most modern technologies (catch-up), domestic saving, a cooperative mentality

Question 21

What constitutes the “demographic transition”?

Answer 21

A transition from high death and birth rates to lower

Question 22

Name some reasons behind the “Golden Age” in Western Europe 1950-1975

Answer 22

International institutions producing monetary stability, investment in the most modern production technologies, increased government participation in the economy

Question 23

Name some factors behind the relative decline in European economic growth 1975-2010

Answer 23

An aging population, recurring financial crisis, difficulty for some to adapt to new technologies

Question 24

What is meant by the gold standard?

Answer 24

A system of fixed exchange rates were the value of the currency was tied to the value of gold

Question 25

What is meant by the first globalization wave

Answer 25

A period of rapidly expanding trade after 1870, made possible by lowered tariffs, falling transportation costs and the spread of the gold standard

Question 26

What was different about the first globalization wave compared to the second

Answer 26

That it meant not only the free movement of goods and capital but also extensive international migration

Question 27

What is meant by the Second Industrial Revolution?

Answer 27

A period when industrialization spread to new countries spurred by inventions in electricity, the telegraph and railroads

Question 28

What was the Grain Invasion?

Answer 28

When falling barriers to trade resulted in an influx of cheap grain from North America and Eastern Europe into Western Europe

Question 29

What was the “Scramble for Africa”?

Answer 29

A period beginning in the late 19th century when European nations colonized the majority of African territory

Question 30

What was the “Great Famine”?

Answer 30

A period of starvation in Ireland spurred by harvest failures and resulting in mass emigration to the United States

Question 31

What was special about the Nordic countries in the period from 1870 to 1914?

Answer 31

They grew very rapidly and began catching up to the economic leaders

Question 32

What was the result of increased trade and falling prices for foodstuffs during the first globalization wave?

Answer 32

It raised the living standards of the population

Question 33

What did the first globalization wave mean for Latin America?

Answer 33

A period of soaring exports and rapid economic growth

Question 34

What was the Chinese Qing constitutional movement of 1903–1911?

Answer 34

An attempt at steering China towards a constitutional democracy and to introduce parliaments. administrative reforms, modern banks and modern infrastructure

Question 35

What was the Great Levelling?

Answer 35

A period of falling inequality in most western countries driven in part by mass warfare and increases in top marginal taxes to finance the wars

Question 36

Which technologies saw widespread diffusion during the interwar period?

Answer 36

Electricity, the internal combustion engine and the telephone

Question 37

How can the situation for Latin America in the interwar period be characterized?

Answer 37

They suffered from the breakdown of international trade as their economies were focused on primary product exports

Question 38

How can we characterize Japan’s economic growth during the interwar period?

Answer 38

It was not particularly fast, as the country grew at the rate of the world at large

Question 39

How did Chinese industry develop between WW1 and the 1930s?

Answer 39

There was double-digit annual growth as a consequence of increased trade and inflows of foreign direct investments resulting in expansions in textiles, food processing and other consumer products

Question 40

The nationalistic movements in the Middle East during the interwar period sought to do the following things?

Answer 40

To reindustrialize with the help of state intervention in the economy which manifested itself in the nationalization of European assets in railways, banks and other utilities

Question 41

What was the third globalization wave?

Answer 41

A resurgence of global trade from the 1970s onwards spurred by opening of markets and innovations in information technologies and container freight

Question 42

What was the main change in the economy’s structure from the 1970s onwards?

Answer 42

A shift from agriculture and manufacturing into services

Question 43

What was the events that led up to the 2008 financial crisis?

Answer 43

Low interest rates in the early 2000s and government subsidies for home lending was combined with new financial services that pooled several home loans into one product

Question 44

What was the short-term economic consequence of the transition of the former socialist economy of the Soviet Union into a market-based system?

Answer 44

GDP initially decreased substantially, life expectancy fell and crime increased

Question 45

What was the import-substitution policy that was tried in many Latin American countries during the postwar period?

Answer 45

An attempt to industrialize by substituting imported manufactured goods for domestically produced products

Question 46

What was the policy changes enacted by the Chinese government following Mao Zedong’s death in 1976?

Answer 46

Rural liberalization, expansion of foreign trade and investment, policies aimed at enlivening state-owned enterprises and fiscal decentralization

Question 47

What were some of the problems that followed from the reliance on oil revenues in many of the Middle Eastern economies in the postwar period?

Answer 47

That it was a source of conflict over how to divide revenues, foreign inputs crowed out domestic manufacturing and expectations of future income became unrealistic

Question 48

What was the general direction of economic policy in India following independence from the British?

Answer 48

There was a large increase in government expenditure and investment, tariffs and non-tarrif barriers were raised and the state took control over the grain trade

Question 49

What is meant by the “Asian Tigers”

Answer 49

The four countries of Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan that developed rapidly from the late 1960s