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The Contributions of Robert Fogel to Cliometrics

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Handbook of Cliometrics

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Abstract

Robert Fogel was one of the earliest and most forceful advocates for the use of quantitative methods and economic theory in the study of economic history and long-term economic change. He demonstrated through his work on the economic impact of the railroads and the economic history of US slavery that the cliometric approach had the potential to challenge and overturn long-standing views based on narrative approaches to economic history. The volume he edited with Stanley Engerman, The Reinterpretation of American Economic History, published in 1971 provided an early manifestation to economists and historians alike of the wide range of applications the cliometric approach could offer to various fields of economic history. Throughout his career, Fogel advocated for the cliometric approach to history more generally, not just to economic history. His contributions were recognized when he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics with Douglass North in 1993. In the subsequent 20 years until his death in 2013, Fogel pursued an interdisciplinary research project focused on long-run changes in the interaction between technological advance, nutrition, human health, and mortality culminating in The Changing Body (co-authored with Roderick Floud, Bernard Harris, and Sok Chul Hong).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See for example Sutch (1982), McCloskey (1978, 1987), and Williamson (1991). Fogel and Elton (1983), footnote 17 on p. 24 provides an extensive bibliography of pieces surveying the nature of cliometrics as do McCloskey and Hersh (1990). Histories of cliometrics include Williamson (1991) and Drukker (2006).

  2. 2.

    Letter from Robert W. Fogel to Frederick Mosteller dated April 9, 1965 located in Robert W. Fogel papers, Box 161, in Frederick Mosteller file.

  3. 3.

    See memor from Fogel to Robert McAdams dated August 13, 1973, re: “A Proposal to establish a Committee on Mathematical Methods in History at the University of Chicago” located in Robert W. Fogel Papers, Box 145, Robert McAdams folder.

  4. 4.

    Located in Robert W. Fogel papers, Box 157, Simon Kuznets folder.

  5. 5.

    Located in Robert W. Fogel papers, Box 157, Simon Kuznets folder.

  6. 6.

    Located in Robert W. Fogel papers, Box 157, Simon Kuznets folder.

  7. 7.

    See Letter from Fogel to Kuznets dated August 28, 1961, pp. 3–4 located in Robert W. Fogel papers, Box 157, Simon Kuznets folder and Letter to Harold Barger dated July 15, 1963 located in Robert W. Fogel papers, Box 146, Harold Barger folder.

  8. 8.

    Located in Robert W. Fogel papers, Box 159, Lionel McKenzie folder.

  9. 9.

    Letter from Paul David to Robert Fogel dated December 4, 1964 located in Robert W. Fogel papers, Box 149, Paul David folder.

  10. 10.

    Also see Toman (2005). For critical discussion of Fogel and Engerman’s work see Wright (1979). For more recent surveys of the literature on the efficiency of slavery see Wright (2006) and Sutch’s chapter on “African American Slavery and the Cliometric Revolution” in this volume.

  11. 11.

    Travscript of interview located in Robert W. Fogel papers Box 84, NBER program folder, quote is from p. 4, 3/13/78 interview of Robert Fogel with Simon Kuznets.

  12. 12.

    Syllabus and Lecture notes for this course located in Robert W. Fogel papers Box 59.

  13. 13.

    For Engerman’s perspective on this collaboration see Engerman (1992).

References

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  1. Department of Economics, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA

    David Mitch

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  1. BETA/CNRS (UMR 7522), University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study, Strasbourg Cedex, France

    Claude Diebolt

  2. University of Wisconsin Department of Economics, La Crosse, WI, USA

    Michael Haupert

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Mitch, D. (2019). The Contributions of Robert Fogel to Cliometrics. In: Diebolt, C., Haupert, M. (eds) Handbook of Cliometrics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_49-1

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