“Cliometrics, the New Institutional Economics, and the Future of Economic History” Douglass North and John V. C. Nye

Abstract: Where does economic history stand, over four decades after the founding of the Cliometric Society?  On the one hand, the use of theory and statistics is now a given, and the best of economic history would qualify as first rate applied economics.  But it is also true that even some of the best work is merely applied economics.  For the most part, our best results have been negative ones - debunking bad arguments and eliminating outrageous claims.  Our work has failed to promote broader syntheses that establish a positive theory of economic development and it is unlikely that slavish adhered to the topics fashionable in the mainstream work are liable to prove of much help.  We have also lost some of the appeal to institutions and history that were characteristic of the best traditional work in economic history.  We propose that future research be explicitly focused on promoting what we call the institutional narrative - a historical discussion in which the crucial changes and turning points and analyzed with the aid of the new institutional economics and rational choice theory.  Such as agenda will not be bounded by the limits of technical knowledge and will help us and the outside world keep  abreast of the sate of knowledge as it related to existing questions at all times.

Page by Meredith Beechey
Prepared  09/08/02