Economic History

Epistemological issue of Economic History; dynamics and significance of major economic changes before and after
Industrialization; the economy of Europe and Modern Economic Growth (MEG)
Why Europe first ? Fundamental characters:
The Great Divergence: what assumptions?
From the end of the Roman Empire to Feudalism.
The "Smithian" phase of growth of the European economy.
The origin of modern economic growth. The transformation in agriculture.
Demography and growth: from agricultural civilization to Malthus.
The European economy between continuity and change. Regional and national routes to industrialization (18th-20th centuries).
The beginning of 'Schumpeterian' growth of the economy; the afirmation of 'modern finance' as a necessary condition.
Europe exists because it trades: from Italian city-states to trading companies.
Institutions and economic growth. Currency, banking, interest. Trade and transportation networks.
Why England first? Prerequisites, strategic elements and basic features of the Industrial Revolution (1770-1830).
Geography of English industrialization and historiographical evaluation of the concept of industrial revolution.
Modern economics: the assertion of quantification of reality, the Scientific Revolution and machinism.
Industrial Revolution and technological change.
Technological systems and work organization in the Second Industrial Revolution.
The successes of Central European countries up to the eve of the WWI: Belgium; the case of France;Germany;
The premises of free trade: from the illusion of soft trade to the Samsimonian utopia.
Customs leagues, currency unions and laissez-faire against the backdrop of the Second Industrial Revolution
customs leagues; theory and practice of free trade.
Pros and cons of free trade and currency unions.
The Latin and Scandinavian Monetary Union, and the 1867 International Monetary Conference;
Other formal institutions of cooperation (1869 International Office of Telegraphy, 1874 Universal Postal Union...).
Revolution in transportation: the railroad, sea trades.
Crisis and protectionism in Europe (1873-1896).
Responses to the Recession (1873)
Toward the first Globalization:
Gold standard, moderate protectionism and economic growth between the late 19th century and the eve of the IGM:
early globalization.
The operation of the international gold standard system and international investment;
Migratory movements and the movement of goods;
The demise of liberal capitalism;
Market-oriented vs. bank-oriented financial systems.
The advent of World War I and the breakdown of convergence and globalization:
Factors and dynamics of English decline;
The rise of the United States;
The industrialization of Japan;
The Second Industrial Revolution, Mass production.
The scientific organization of work and the establishment of the Taylor-Fordist model.
The advent of World War I and the breakdown of convergence and globalization.
The disintegration of the European economy between the wars.
The economic consequences of peace. The issue of war damages and the emergence of the Bri
The new international gold standard and its disintegration;
The Great Crisis of 1929 and state intervention between Keynesian revolution and nominal revolution in economic policy;
Economic dirigisme in authoritarian regimes; the New Deal
The process of European economic integration: from the Marshall Plan to the EU (1947-2000) between the golden age and the overcoming of the Fordist-Keynesian.
The Bretton Woods international monetary system and the creation of international institutions (audiovisual projections)
The liberalization of European trade and the first attempts at European economic integration (1947-55); the
International Monetary Organization and Europe; the United States at the head of the world economy.
The Birth of the European Economic Community.
The Golden Age in Europe.
The end of fixed exchange rates, the 1973 oil crisis and the demise of the Fordist-Keynesian paradigm.
Tasformations and alternative models: Planned economies (URRS, Eastern Europe).
Social Democracies in Scandinavia. Social Market Economy.
The alternative of Toyotism: the emergence of Japan and the Asian Tigers;
The rise of the neo-liberal order since the early 1980s: monetarism, Reaganomics, and post-Fordist society;
The financialization of the economy and the transition to the second Globalization.
The Maastricht Treaty and European monetary union.
Stylized facts of the economic dynamics of European countries (1947-2000).
Technological revolution and market liberalization at the origins of the second globalization;
At the roots of the Great Contraction (2007- ).
The Italian economy from Unification to 2000: from the periphery to the center, back and forth
The first fiftieth anniversary of Unification. The first modernization of the Giolittian age.
Between the two wars. The fascist economy.
-State, industry, finance and society
Economic miracle: cycle and structural change. state intervention.
Missed opportunities (1963-74). From the soaring inflation to the Euro (1975-2002).