Assignment:
1. What role did economic factors play in precipitating the American Revolution?
American Revolution." William and Mary Quarterly, Jan. 1972.
Peter D. McClelland. "The Cost to America of British Imperial Policy." American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, v. LIX, no. 7, May 1969.
Joseph D. Reid, Jr. "Economic Burdens: Spark to the American Revolution?" Journal of Economic History, v. XXXVIII, n. 1, March 1978.
Walton and Rockoff, History of the American Economy. 10th ed.
2. What role did financial factors play in the origin and amplification of the great depression? Eugene N. White, The Stock Market Boom and Crash of 1929 Revisited," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 4, 2, Spring 1990, pp. 67-83.
Alexander Field, "A New Interpretation of the Onset of the Great Depression." Journal of Economic History, 44, 1984.
Charles Calomiris, "Financial Factors in the Great Depression, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7, 2 (Spring 1993), pp. 61-85.
Walton and Rockoff, History of the American Economy. 10th ed.
3. Was the stock market boom of the 1920s a financial bubble? How can we tell? How do bubbles happen?
Eugene N. White, The Stock Market Boom and Crash of 1929 Revisited," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 4, 2, Spring 1990, pp. 67-83.
Robert J. Shiller, "Speculative Prices and Popular Models," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 4, 2, Spring 1990, pp. 55-65.
Andrei Shleifer and Lawrence H. Summers, "The Noise Trader Approach to Finance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 4, 2, Spring 1990, pp.19-33.
4. How well can the "convergence hypothesis" account for international patterns of growth? Can convergence be counted on to drive growth in the future? (The readings by Baumol and DeLong are statistical in character, but you should be able to follow their gist.)
William Baumol, "Productivity Growth, Convergence and Welfare: What the Long-Run Data Show? American Economic Review (AER) 76 (1986), 1072-1085.
J. Bradford DeLong, "Productivity Growth, Convergence and Welfare: Comment." AER 78 (1988). 1138-1153.
Jeffrey G. Williamson, "Globalization, Labor Markets, and Policy Backlash in the Past-. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12 4 Fall 1998 51-72.