THE ECONOMICS OF THE LONG PERIOD by Gregory Ponthiere (M1 Earth Law, S2)
Can economics help us thinking about social change?
This course aims at examining how economists and economic historians study transitions, regime shifts and historical discontinuities. For that purpose, we will first study how economists and economic historians analyzed major economic and social changes that occurred in the past (such as, for instance, the first and the second economic revolutions, as well as the demographic transition), and, then, we will try to build a kind of "conceptual toolbox", by drawing materials from the works of, among others, Douglas North, Gregory Clark, Oded Galor, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson.
The course takes the form of a workshop (cours atelier), where the active participation of each student is required through reading, presenting, discussing and writing.