Demographic shocks: the view from history: discussion

I must admit from the onset that I cannot really be very critical of Massimo Livi-Bacci's work, because much if not most of what I know of historical demography I learned from him, and thus if I were overly critical of him, I would be in the position of spitting into the well from which I have drunk. This is a nice and well-argued paper, although for those of us who have been keeping up with Livi-Bacci's books, there is little here that we did not know before or at least were prepared to believe. But his essay, all the same, is so informed and so chock-full of insights that it inspired me to try to formalize and reflect on some of the things that he talks about, and how we should think about demographic shocks and the impact of political and economic events on mortality, fertility, and similar variables.Demography ; Economic conditions

Commentary : global demographic change : dimensions and economic significance

Economic conditions

Are we living in the middle of an Industrial Revolution?

The concept of a new Industrial Revolution has recently become of great interest to general economists of all persuasions. For example, the New Growth Theory has placed renewed emphasis on the importance of technological change in modern economic growth, and a number of authors have suggested that we are entering a new period of technological advances that could profoundly affect the world economy. ; In an article based on comments at the Tenth District Monetary Policy Roundtable, Mr. Mokyr looks at the events of our time in relation to events of the British Industrial Revolution. He cautions that the temptation to look at the past to guide us in making predictions and policy recommendations should be resisted. Historical analogies often mislead as much as they instruct, and in technological progress, where change is unpredictable, cumulative, and irreversible, the analogies are more dangerous than anywhere.Technology ; Economic history ; Economic conditions - United States

Custom

A brief statement of the costumary foundations of economic processes and institutions and a review of theoretical approaches to custom

La Revolución Industrial y la Nueva Historia Económica (I)

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La Revolución Industrial y la Nueva Historia Económica (y II).

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Useful knowledge, 'industrial enlightenment', and the place of India

Research is now turning to the missing place of technology and ‘useful knowledge’ in the debate on the ‘great divergence’ between East and West. Parallel research in the history of science has sought the global dimensions of European knowledge. Joel Mokyr's recent The Enlightened Economy (2009) argued the place of an exceptional ‘industrial enlightenment’ in Europe in explaining industrialization there, but neglected the wide geographic framework of European investigation of the arts and manufactures. This article presents two case studies of European industrial travellers who accessed and described Indian crafts and industries at the time of Britain's industrial revolution and Europe's Enlightenment discourse on crafts and manufactures. The efforts of Anton Hove and Benjamin Heyne to ‘codify’ the ‘tacit’ knowledge of a part of the world distant from Europe were hindered by the English East India Company and the British state. Their accounts, only published much later, provide insight into European perceptions of India's ‘useful knowledge’