General

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

jmw — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:03:28 GMT

You're right. The radical idea that people who frequent a small Austrian economics forum might have legitimate research questions, laughable! He should be using only certain sources. All original research comes from one place and it's not the internet. You shouldn't open up a discussion to the public they are all ignorant masses.

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

John James — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:56:12 GMT

Today on the Mises Daily:

How to Do Economic History

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Jargon — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 05:49:44 GMT

Prashanth, if you do decide to write about the gilded age you've got to read Triumph of Conservatism and Railroads and Regulations by Gabriel Kolko. Triumph of conservatism is on the cusp of Gilded/Progressive but still offers great insight into the economic consensus of the time. Also how much of a bonehead Roosevelt was. Railroads and regulations I imagine will be more useful, but they're both well sourced and comprehensive works.

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

tunk — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 04:24:23 GMT

Cornell U has a whole bunch of primary documents on the Triangle fire. Google has archived old newspapers. I've only done a superficial survey of the secondary literature so I can't really help with that.

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

John James — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:18:49 GMT

As mentioned earlier, Tom Woods (and others) have noted economic history is an area that is quite lacking. You might contact him, as well as Pete Boettke, Pete Leeson, Tom DiLorenzo, Joe Salerno, Bob Higgs, and Richard Ebeling.

Also just for fun,

A Reading List for Wannabe Economic Historians

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Aristippus — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:54:14 GMT

The most influential works attempting to explain the industrial revolution published in recent times are:

Douglass North & Robert Thomas 1973, The Rise of the Western World - this focuses on institutions and transaction costs (also see other publications by North such as his 1981 work, Structure and Change in Economic History)

Gregory Clark 2007, A Farewell to Alms - this focuses on sociobiological factors

You should find a lot of the other important works you need to look at referred to in these two. Did you look at Mises' discussion of the Industrial Revolution and his argument that the idea of it as a 'revolution' is based on a Marxian/historicist view of history?

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Wheylous — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:12:51 GMT

Lorenzo has done some work on monopolies, including

The Myth of Natural Monopoly (how government created utility monopolies)

The Myth of Predatory Pricing (how illogical an untenable predatory pricing is)

The Ghost of John D. Rockefeller

Some more good info on monopolies:

AT&T (government-created monopoly)

Oil, Gas, and government (haven't read, but have seen referenced)

Standard Oil: A Centennial Evaluation (countering common critiques of Standard Oil, 4 part series, this is part III)

Pioneering in Big Business (review of Standard Oil, thick book, reading it now)

On the Gilded Age:

No Laissez Faire There

The Gilded Age: A Modest Revision

For more authors, this Freeman article says

... decades of research by Chicago school scholars such as the late Yale Brozen and Harold Demsetz, and Austrian school scholars such as Dominick Armentano, who have compiled thousands of pages of published, documented evidence of how antitrust regulation has been harmful to consumers and has impaired economic efficiency and reduced productivity.

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Chyd3nius — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:27:16 GMT

Rothbard studied cycles in US and Huerta de Soto in Spain. If you want to be unique, study some British cycles.

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Duke — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:46:54 GMT

Or you could write about how economic socialism necessitates totalitarianism, and draw from the experiences of several countries. George Reisman has a good talk on this as a starting point.

The big areas of interest these days seem to be development economics and globalization. There are a lot of topics out there. Like someone said, you could counter Ha Joon Chang. George Reisman also has a great article on this http://mises.org/daily/2361 It would be up to you to dig up the specific historical facts.The recent steps toward deregulation in India are topical.

I don't know what can safely be studied at the London School of Economics. If economics is anything like philosophy, my field, then certain topics are just not going to get approved. And sometimes they'll approve something they hate, but they'll tear it apart (in their own misguided way). You're probably always safe with public choice theory, but that's boring.

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Porco Rosso — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:21:19 GMT

Here's one place to start

http://www.libertarianstandard.com/2011/09/14/on-the-austrian-theory-of-money-a-reply-to-david-graeber/

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Porco Rosso — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:04:50 GMT

Well The Phoenicians and the West is a fairly interesting book. The author of that books shows that markets and the kinds of things that Graeber talks about have coeisted throughout history while Graeber says there has NEVER been a society based on barter. I mean that claim is ludicrous to begin with and that's what needs to be refuted really.

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Prashanth Perumal — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:10:57 GMT

Neodoxy, thanks. Topics that link the history of economic thought with economic history are acceptable.

Tunk & Porco Rosso, can you guys tell me more on literature I could refer to in the attempt to rebut Graeber? Carl Menger's original work, and references to the same in works of Mises and others is what I've come across. Is the scope of the topic any wider? Also tell me about literature related to the Triangle shirtwaist.

Aristippus, the issue of what caused the Industrial revolution is something very closely related to the research interests of the professors here as well. Should be a cool thing to add to it. Guide me with the literature as much as you can. Looking forward.

Wheylous, Tom di Lorenzo's should be my first step towards research on the Gilded age, I suppose?

Claudius, I don't find anything laughable about this. LvMI has contributed a lot to my intellectual development. That includes this very message-board.

Michelangelo, I don't have much interest with the middle-east really. Thanks for your suggestion still.

Stephen, please guide me on works related to research on the Industrial revolution. Which works of Hoppe and Clark in particular deal with the topic?

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Porco Rosso — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:14:21 GMT

I personally think taking on the so-called "economic anthropologists" would be more interesting and is much more important.

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Stephen — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 03:11:35 GMT

I would like to see a full explaination of the industrial revolution in England. Nobody has yet produced a satisfying answer and its the most important event in history. Hoppe and Clark have both shown that a number of factors were necessary, but none of them, by themselves, sufficient. That would be my first choice.

My second choice would be explaining China's industrial revolution which only really started in the 1970s.

The fertility decline in the West is another possibility.

Re: Thesis topics in Economic History.

Smiling Dave — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:32:18 GMT

Rothbards book about the depression ends in 1932, maybe you could continue from there.

or about did ww2 "end" the great depression.

And what interests me a lot, did nazi germany's dictatorship improve the economy there?