The course explores the historical process leading to the present. It combines the (material) history of economic development and crises since the early modern period with the sense-making process reflected in the evolution of economic thought and the formation of the scientific discipline we today know as economics since the eighteenth century. Its main aim is to understand path dependencies in economic development and the development of economic thought and therefore to provide students with a contextualization of the current state of the world economy and economic theory.

The course covers three main periods:

1) the decentralized world we left behind (before about 1750): economic growth was uncertain, trade was relatively unimportant and economic activity and innovation was strongly constraint by political, religious and resource boundaries. Economic thought at the end of this period (Malthus, Smith) deals with how to avoid misery under such conditions, while prior  economic thought was generally embedded into wider philosophical and theological inquiries.

2) the ‘long nineteenth century’: British industrial revolution, the ‘first globalization’ and the 'great specialization' between industrializing countries and raw material exporters. In the history of economics this period sees the birth of economics (or ‘political economy’) as a specialized discipline in the writings of Adams Smith, the French physiocrats, and Malthus, Ricardo and J.S. Mill, as well as alternative approaches to economic inquiry which were widespread in the 19th Century, but are not anymore today.

3) the world as we know it today and its immediate precedents since about 1920: challenges and crises of the interwar years, the systems competition during the Cold War and the (alleged) ‘End of History’ following the collapse of the Soviet Union and what came after it. In the history of economics this marks the evolution of modern macroeconomics marked by Keynes, the Neoclassical-Keynesian Synthesis and the rise of Monetarism.

In the context of the degree, this course serves three aims: a) give an idea of the historical process leading to the present, b) discuss the sense-making process going on when at the time and shortly afterwards and c) see how this process affects, as environment to doing business, entrepreneurs and the decisions and the shape of firms. By this, it widens the intellectual horizon, opens the mind for thinking about ‘alternative paths’ (taken and not taken) and the interplay between economic, social, institutional processes and the environment.

After attending this course, students will be able to:

- Understand and explain the origin and evolution of world economy, the causes and consequences of industrialization and market integration/globalization.

- Understand and explain the historical development of the discipline of economics

- Discuss economic causes, effects and policies explaining and affecting economic development, industrialization and market integration in and between economies and societies

- Discuss specific cases/examples of the interplay between material historical developments and the challenges they present for scientific reasoning.

- Analyse and describe graphs with long-run empirical information and discuss their wider historical economic context and their connection to economic theory.

- Synthesize information from academic texts

The course will take place over 9 weeks with 1.5h+1h of class each week (and a 30 minute break in between). Participation in at least 75% of class hours, i.e. 7 out of 9 weeks of class, in order to pass the course successfully. Assistance in class 1, 7 (midterm) and for the final exam (29 January) is mandatory.

Students can either attend the required number of sessions in class, or, as announced in detail in the first class (assistance is mandatory in the first session), substitute absence in up to four classes through online exercises, which will compensate for assistance, but do not count towards the grade (blended learning mode). Quizzes, which are pre-announced, can only be taken in the class-room, which means that doing the compensation exercise in the corresponding weeks does substitute for participation, but does not entitle to take the quiz at a different time or in a different mode. 

Of course, also students attending the session in class can do the absence-substitution exercises (e.g., for individual preparation), but this does not give bonus points or compensate for the absence in sessions where no compensation exercise was delivered.

Absence in the first session cannot be compensated, only excused.

· Lectures by the instructor

· Discussion of historical experiences in economy and economics though a mix of presentational material (videos, texts, circulated powerpoint presentations)

· Discussion and selection of student questions based on pre-circulated materials and self-guided readings

· Individual preparation of academic readings on a specific aspect/question from the course (based on available/assigned materials and resources) in preparation of the midterm in session 7.

Necessary materials will be made available on Canvas or with sufficient anticipation before the sessions. Students are required to prepare for each class with the provided material on Canvas following the indications by the instructor in these materials.

Work load distribution. The course is equivalent to 6 ECTS points, which corresponds to roughly 150 hours of work (or almost 19 days of full time work). Of these, in the face-to-face version we will spend about 22.5 hours in class (9x2.5 hours, excluding breaks) plus one hour for the final exam (plus 30 minutes for check-in and check-out at Audimax). The remaining c. 126 hours will be spent on preparing for 9 classes and the final exam (about 90h, c. 5h per week of class [= 45h] plus organizing and studying the materials for the exam [=45h]) as well as c. 30-35 hours on in the preparation of recommended academic articles for an individualized, in class written assignment (midterm) in week 7on a question either from economic history or from the history of economic thought. For class, students prepare the script for economic history and read texts from and on the history of economic thought (as well as suitable background readings) and formulate questions, answers and takeaways beforehand. In class, we discuss and deepen the materials for each week, and go through exercises based on them. 

- Final exam: 55%. Exam-relevant materials consist of mandatory readings and the content of classes (teaching slides). The exam will be a one-hour multiple choice with open questions test covering both economic history and history of economic thought.

- Individual written task in class: 24% Students are required to write individual answers to a set of questions on a predefined topic (to be selected from a list) with recommended academic literature, in class 7, durantion approximately one hour.

- Short quizzes and other exercises in class: 21%

Grading:

90% or more of the points: 1 (excellent)

80% or more: 2 (good)

70% or more: 3 (satisfactory)

60% or more: 4 (sufficient)

less than 60%: 5 (fail)

All grading elements can only be delivered in the lecture hall. This refers to quizzes/exercises in class, the individual written task in session 7 and the final exam at the end of January. Quizzes cannot be repeated or taken at different times/dates. If students miss the written individual task in class due to justified and documented (medical) reasons, an equivalent oral exam will be offered. The final exam will be offered for repetition at a later date, to classify for that either valid (medical) excuse for absence in the regular exam or obtaining at least 10% of the points in the regular final exam (but not passing the course) is required.

In this course, the use of any AI-based software (e.g., ChatGPT, Bard, DeepL) as well as platforms for sharing written assignments (e.g., Studydrive) in the preparation of quizzes, exercises, written assignments and/or exams constitutes an unauthorised aid under the WU examination regulations. Such misconduct will be reported and will result in academic disciplinary consequences.

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No prerequisites.

by email: markus.lampe@wu.ac.at.
For office hours see https://www.wu.ac.at/en/geschichte/institute/faculty-and-staff/

Face-to-face office hours will be available on appointment.