Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Political Economy

  • Living reference work entry
  • Latest version View entry history
  • First Online:
Handbook of Cliometrics

  • 18 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter surveys research on political economy in economic history. It discusses the integration of the public choice/political economy approaches with economic history by providing a highly selective thematic overview. Topics discussed include the origins of the state, different regime types, labor coercion, warfare, religion, and state capacity. The chapter also provides detailed illustrations of how economic historians have investigated specific historical episodes such as the Glorious Revolution, French Revolution, the consequences of European empires, and the rise of Democracies.

This was originally completed while I was the W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell Fellowship at the Hoover Institution and updated in February 2023. I am grateful for comments on the original version from Mike Haupert, Thilo Huning, Noel Johnson, Pseudoeramus, and proofreading from Kashiff Thompson.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The Nobel Prize was awarded to Fogel and North for pioneering cliometrics, specifically, “research that combines economic theory, quantitative methods, hypothesis testing, counterfactual alternatives, and traditional techniques of economic history, to explain economic growth and decline” (The Prize in Economics 1993 – Press Release, 1993).

  2. 2.

    The political economy label is particularly associated with the work of Persson and Tabellini (2000), Alberto Alesina, and Dani Rodrik.

  3. 3.

    See discussion in Diebolt and Haupert (2018) of the impact of Fogel and North on economic history.

  4. 4.

    The current state of the field is influenced by Acemoglu et al. (2001, 2005a), who took Northian arguments and tested them econometrically using innovative empirical methods. Following the success of Acemoglu et al. (2001), this approach has bloomed both within economic history and in the related fields of growth economics, development, and political economy. Other important publications by Acemoglu and Robinson and their coauthors include Acemoglu et al. (2005a, b), Acemoglu (2006).

  5. 5.

    Though this specific research design has come under recent criticism, see Arroyo Abad and Maurer (2021).

  6. 6.

    Fleck and Andrew Hanssen (2013) discuss how the institution of tyranny – stable autocratic rule – helped to pave the way for democratization.

  7. 7.

    Economic historians have criticized the coding and the depiction of Spain and France as governed by overly powerful absolutist monarchs as out of date. But this research showed what was possible with historical data.

  8. 8.

    A literature extending back to Montesquieu and Hume argues that Europe’s political fragmentation was key to its eventual rise and to modern economic growth (Baechler 1975; Jones 1981, 2003; Hall 1985; Rosenberg and Birdzell 1986).

  9. 9.

    For example, Greif (2006) studied Jewish traders based in North Africa in the eleventh century. He argued that they relied on markers of a shared identity i.e., identifying rules to support the cooperation which made long-distance trade possible. But these rules were limited in scope. Outsiders could not benefit from the Maghribi network, and the network itself was limited in scale.

  10. 10.

    For a survey of investment in legal capacity, see Koyama (2023).

  11. 11.

    Note, that the most recent research on the Spanish economy, for instance, points to domestic factors such as the absence of integrated markets, or a standardized fiscal system (Grafe 2012; Álvarez Nogal and de la Escosura 2013). Many of the bolder claims made on the behalf of the importance of empire to the origins of growth in Europe are ably dismissed by McCloskey (2010).

  12. 12.

    A recent paper does make case that the profits from slave plantations helped fund manufacturing within England (Heblich et al. 2022).

  13. 13.

    See also Koyama and Rubin (2022, Chapter 6).

  14. 14.

    This leads one to ask what determines patterns of pre-colonial state development in Africa. According to Fenske (2014), pre-colonial African states emerged in more ecologically diverse environments, where the returns to trade were greater.

  15. 15.

    These articles have come under criticism for taking into account the full cost of empire (see Coyne and Davies 2007).

  16. 16.

    Dower et al. (2018) address the relationship between the threat of revolution and the emergence of representative institutions using data from Russia during the Great Reforms that abolished serfdom. They find that peasants received less representation in local assemblies (zemstvo) in districts that experienced more frequent peasant unrest in the years preceding 1864. This result is consistent with Acemoglu and Robinson (2000), who predict that political reforms are most likely to be offered when the poor posed only a temporary threat to the established order. When the poor pose a permanent threat, however, democraticization is no longer the sole way the elite can credibly commit to future redistribution.

  17. 17.

    Koyama (2021) discusses this trade-off more generally in the context of both historical diseases. Geloso et al. (2022) argue that it holds specifically for “diseases of commerce” but not necessarily for other types of disease.

References

  • Accominotti O, Flandreau M, Rezzik R, Zumer F (2010) Black man’s burden, white man’s welfare: control, devolution and development in the British Empire, 1880–1914. Eur Rev Econ Hist 14(1):47–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D (2003) Why not a political Coase theorem? Social conflict, commitment and politics. J Comp Econ 31(4):620–652

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D (2006) A simple model of inefficient institutions. Scand J Econ 108:515–546

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D (2008) Oligarchic versus democratic societies. J Eur Econ Assoc 6(1):1–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D, Robinson JA (2000) Why did the west extend the franchise? Democracy, inequality, and growth in historical perspective. Q J Econ 115(4):1167–1199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D, Robinson JA (2006) The economic origins of dictatorship and democracy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D, Robinson JA (2012) Why nations fail. Crown Business, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D, Wolitzky A (2011) The economics of labor coercion. Econometrica 79(2):555–601

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D, Johnson S, Robinson JA (2001) The colonial origins of comparative development: an empirical investigation. Am Econ Rev 91(5):1369–1401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D, Johnson S, Robinson JA (2002) Reversal of fortune: geography and institutions in the making of the modern world income distribution. Q J Econ 117(4):1231–1294

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D, Johnson S, Robinson JA (2005a) Chapter 6: Institutions as a fundamental cause of long-run growth. In: Aghion P, Durlauf S (eds) Handbook of economic growth, vol 1. Elsevier, pp 385–472

    Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D, Johnson S, Robinson J (2005b) The rise of Europe: Atlantic trade, institutional change, and economic growth. Am Econ Rev 95(3):546–579

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu D, Cantoni D, Johnson S, Robinson JA (2011) The consequences of radical reform: the French revolution. Am Econ Rev 101(7):3286–3307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acharya A, Lee A (2018) Economic foundations of the territorial state system. Am J Polit Sci 62(4):954–966

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aidt TS, Franck R (2015) Democratization under the threat of revolution: evidence from the Great Reform Act of 1832. Econometrica 83:505–547

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alesina A, Spolaore E (1997) On the number and size of nations. Q J Econ 112(4):1027–1056

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen RC (1997) Agriculture and the origins of the state in ancient Egypt. Explor Econ Hist 34(2):135–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen RC (2009) The British industrial revolution in a global perspective. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Allen RC, Bertazzini MC, Heldring L (2020) The economic origin of government. Unpublished manuscript

    Google Scholar 

  • Álvarez Nogal C, de la Escosura LP (2013) The rise and fall of Spain (1270–1850). Econ Hist Rev 66(1):1–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson RW, Johnson ND, Koyama M (2017) Jewish persecutions and weather shocks, 1100–1800. Econ J 127(602):924–958

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Angelucci C, Meraglia S, Voigtländer N (2022) How merchant towns shaped parliaments: from the Norman conquest of England to the Great Reform Act. Am Econ Rev 112:3441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arroyo Abad L, Maurer N (2021) Forced labor in colonial Spanish America, CEPR discussion papers 16467, C.E.P.R. Discussion papers

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashraf QH, Cinnirella F, Galor O, Gershman B, Hornung E (2017) Capital-Skill Complementarity and the Emergence of Labor Emancipation, Department of Economics Working Papers 2017-03, Department of Economics. Williams College

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Baechler J (1975) The origins of capitalism. Basil Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Balla E, Johnson ND (2009) Fiscal crisis and institutional change in the Ottoman Empire and France. J Econ Hist 69(03):809–845

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee A, Iyer L (2005) History, institutions, and economic performance: the legacy of colonial land tenure systems in India. Am Econ Rev 95(4):1190–1213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bates RH, Lien D-HD (1985) A note on taxation, development, and representative government. Polit Soc 14(1):53–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bates RH, Greif A, Levi M, Rosenthal J-L, Weingast BR (eds) (1998) Analytic narratives. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker SO, Pfaff S, Rubin J (2016) Causes and consequences of the Protestant reformation. Explor Econ Hist 62:1–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker S, Ferrara A, Melander E, Pascali L (2020) Wars, taxation and representation: Evidence from five centuries of German history, CEPR discussion papers 15601, C.E.P.R. Discussion papers

    Google Scholar 

  • Bentzen JS, Kaarsen N, Wingender AM (2017) Irrigation and autocracy. J Eur Econ Assoc 15(1):1–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Besley T, Persson T (2011) Pillars of prosperity. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bin Wong R (1997) China transformed: historical change and the limits of European experience. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Bisin A, Rubin J, Seror A, Verdier T (2021) Culture, institutions & the long divergence, Working Paper 28488, National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w28488

  • Blaydes L (2017) State building in the Middle East. Annu Rev Polit Sci 20:487–504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaydes L, Chaney E (2013) The feudal revolution and Europe’s rise: political divergence of the Christian and Muslim worlds before 1500 CE. Am Polit Sci Rev 107(1):16–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bodenhorn H (2017) Opening access: banks and politics in New York from the Revolution to the Civil War. Unpublished manuscript

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogart D (2011) Did the glorious revolution contribute to the transport revolution? Evidence from investment in roads and rivers. Econ Hist Rev 64(4):1073–1112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bogart D (2018) Party connections, interest groups and the slow diffusion of infrastructure: evidence from Britain’s first transport revolution. Econ J 128(609):541–575

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bogart D, Richardson G (2009) Making property productive: reorganizing rights to real and equitable estates in britain, 1660-1830. Eur Rev Econ Hist 13(01):3–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bogart D, Richardson G (2011) Property rights and parliament in industrializing Britain. J Law Econ 54(2):241–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boucoyannis D (2015) No taxation of elites, no representation: state capacity and the origins of representation. Polit Soc 4(3):303–332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boucoyannis D (2021) Kings as judges. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brennan G, Buchanan JM (1980) The power to tax. Liberty Fund, Indianapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Brenner R (1976) Agrarian class structure and economic development in pre-industrial Europe. Past Present 70(1):30–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brenner R (1993) Merchants and revolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer J (1988) The sinews of power. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan JM, Tullock G (1962) The calculus of consent. University of Michigan Press, Michigan

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess R, Donaldson D (2017) Railroads and the demise of famine in colonial India. Working paper

    Google Scholar 

  • Caferro W (2008) Warfare and economy in renaissance Italy, 1350–1450. J Interdiscip Hist 39(2):167–2009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cantoni D, Dittmar J, Yuchtman N (2018) Religious competition and reallocation: the political economy of secularization in the Protestant reformation. Q J Econ 133(4):2037–2096

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carneiro RL (1970) A theory of the origin of the state. Science 169(3947):733–738

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carvalho J-P, Dippel C (2020) Elite identity and political accountability: a tale of ten islands. Econ J 130(631):1995–2029

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Centeno MA (1997) Blood and debt: war and taxation in nineteenth-century Latin America. Am J Sociol 102(6):1565–1605

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chaney E (2013) Revolt on the Nile: economic shocks, religion and political power. Econometrica 81(5):2033–2053

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman J (2016) Extension of the franchise and government expenditure on public goods: evidence from nineteenth century England. Mimeo

    Google Scholar 

  • Chaudhary L (2009) Determinants of primary schooling in British India. J Econ Hist 69(1):269–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chaudhary L, Rubin J (2016) Religious identity and the provision of public goods: evidence from the Indian princely states. J Comp Econ 44(3):461–483

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chilosi D (2014) Risky institutions: political regimes and the cost of public borrowing in early modern Italy. J Econ Hist 74(03):887–915

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cipolla CM (1976) Before the industrial revolution. Methuen and Co LTD, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Congleton R (2010) Perfecting parliament: constitutional reform, liberalism, and the rise of Western democracy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Coşgel MM, Miceli TJ (2009) State and religion. J Comp Econ 37(3):402–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coşgel MM, Miceli TJ, Rubin J (2012) The political economy of mass printing: legitimacy and technological change in the Ottoman Empire. J Comp Econ 40(3):357–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coşgel M, Histen M, Miceli TJ, Yildirim S (2018) State and religion over time. J Comp Econ 46(1):20–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cox GW (2016) Marketing sovereign promises: monopoly brokerage and the growth of the English state. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cox G (2017a) The developmental traps left by the Glorious Revolution. Mimeo

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox GW (2017b) Political institutions, economic liberty, and the great divergence. J Econ Hist 77(3):724–755

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coyne C, Davies S (2007) Empire: public goods and bads. Econ J Watch 4(1):3–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Crettez B, Deffains B, Musy O (2018) Legal centralization: a Tocquevillian view. J Leg Stud 47(2):295–323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dasgupta A, Ziblatt D (2015) How did Britain democratize? Views from the sovereign bond market. J Econ Hist 75(1):1–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Long JB, Shleifer A (1993) Princes and merchants: European city growth before the industrial revolution. J Law Econ 36(2):671–702

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dell M (2010) The persistent effects of Peru’s mining mita. Econometrica 78(6):1863–1903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Desierto DA, Koyama M (2022) Feudal political economy. George Mason University, pp 22–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Desierto DA, Hall J, Koyama M (2023) Magna Carta. Unpublished manuscript

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond J (1997) Guns, germs, and steel. W.W. Norton & Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Diebolt C, Haupert M (2018) A cliometric counterfactual: what if there had been neither Fogel nor North? Cliometrica 12(3):407–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dimitruk K (2018) “I intend therefore to prorogue”: the effects of political conflict and the Glorious Revolution in parliament, 1660–1702. Eur Rev Econ Hist 22(3):407–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dincecco M (2009) Fiscal centralization, limited government, and public revenues in Europe, 1650–1913. J Econ Hist 69(1):48–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dincecco M, Onorato MG (2017a) From warfare to welfare. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dincecco M, Onorato MG (2017b) Military conflict and the rise of urban Europe. J Econ Growth 21:259–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dincecco M, Prado M (2012) Warfare, fiscal capacity, and performance. J Econ Growth 17(3):171–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dippel C (2014) Forced coexistence and economic development: evidence from native American reservations. Econometrica 82(6):2131–2165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Domar ED (1970) The causes of slavery or serfdom: a hypothesis. J Econ Hist 30(1):18–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donaldson D (2018) Railroads of the Raj: estimating the impact of transportation infrastructure. Am Econ Rev 108(4–5):899–934

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dower PC, Finkel E, Gehlbach S, Nafziger S (2018) Collective action and representation in autocracies: evidence from Russia’s great reforms. Am Polit Sci Rev 112(1):125–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drelichman M (2005) All that glitters: precious metals, rent seeking and the decline of Spain. Eur Rev Econ Hist 9(03):313–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ekelund RB, Tollison RD (1981) Mercantilsm as a rent-seeking society. Texas A & M University Press, College Station

    Google Scholar 

  • Elis R, Haber S, Horrillo J (2018) The ecological origins of economic and political systems. Manuscript

    Google Scholar 

  • Engerman SL, Sokoloff KL (1994) Factor endowments: institutions, and differential paths of growth among New World economies: a view from economic historians of the United States, Working Paper 66, National Bureau of Economic Research

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein SR (2000) Freedom and growth, the rise of states and markets in Europe, 1300–1700. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Fenske J (2014) Ecology, trade, and states in pre-colonial Africa. J Eur Econ Assoc 12(3):612–640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson N, Schularick M (2006) The empire effect: the determinants of country risk in the first age of globalization, 1880-1913. J Econ Hist 66(2):283–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernández-Villaverde J, Koyama M, Lin Y, Sng T-H (2023) The fractured-land hypothesis. Q J Econ. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjad003

  • Findlay R, O’Rourke KH (2007) Power and plenty. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Finley T, Koyama M (2018) Plague, politics, and pogroms: the Black Death, the rule of law, and the persecution of Jews in the Holy Roman Empire. J Law Econ 61(2):253–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finley T, Franck R, Johnson ND (2021) The effects of land redistribution: evidence from the French revolution. J Law Econ 64(2):233–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleck RK, Andrew Hanssen F (2006) The origins of democracy: a model with application to ancient Greece. J Law Econ 49(1):115–146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleck RK, Andrew Hanssen F (2013) How tyranny paved the way to democracy: the democratic transition in ancient Greece. J Law Econ 56(2):389–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galor O, Moav O (2006) Das human-Kapital: a theory of the demise of the class structure. Rev Econ Stud 73(1):85–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galor O, Moav O, Vollrath D (2009) Inequality in landownership, the emergence of human-capital promoting institutions, and the great divergence. Rev Econ Stud 76(1):143–179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geloso V, Hyde K, Murtazashvili I (2022) Pandemics, economic freedom, and institutional trade-offs. Eur J Law Econ 54(1):37–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gennaioli N, Rainer I (2007) The modern impact of precolonial centralization in Africa. J Econ Growth 12(3):185–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gennaioli N, Voth H-J (2015) State capacity and military conflict. Rev Econ Stud 82(4):1409–1448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grafe R (2012) Distant tyranny: markets, power, and backwardness in Spain, 1650-1800, Princeton Economic History of the Western World. Princeton University Press

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Greif A (1998) Chapter 1: Self-enforcing political systems and economic growth: late medieval Genoa. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 23–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Greif A (2006) Institutions and the path to the modern economy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Greif A, Rubin J (2015) Endogenous political legitimacy: the English reformation and the institutional foundations of limited government. Memo

    Google Scholar 

  • Greif A, Milgrom P, Weingast BR (1994) Coordination, commitment, and enforcement: the case of the merchant guild. J Polit Econ 102(4):745–776

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haber S (ed) (1997) How Latin America fell behind: essays on the economic histories of Brazil and Mexico, 1800–1914. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto

    Google Scholar 

  • Haber S, Razo A, Maurer N (2003) The politics of property rights. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hall JA (1985) Power and liberties. Penguin Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Heblich S, Redding SJ, Voth H-J (2022) Slavery and the British industrial revolution, NBER working papers 30451, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/30451.html

  • Henriques A, Palma N (2019) Comparative European Institutions and the Little Divergence, 1385–1800, Working papers 0171. European Historical Economics Society (EHES)

    Google Scholar 

  • Herbst J (2000) States and power in Africa: comparative lessons in authority and control. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Hicks J (1969) A theory of economic history. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Hintze O (1906/1975) Military organization and the organization of the state. In: Gilbert F (ed) The historical essays of Otto Hintze. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 178–215

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman PT (2011) Prices, the military revolution, and western Europe’s comparative advantage in violence. Econ Hist Rev 64(1):39–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman PT (2015a) What do states do? Politics and economic history. J Econ Hist 75:303–332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman PT (2015b) Why did Europe conquer the world? Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Huillery E (2014) The black man’s burden: the cost of colonization of French West Africa. J Econ Hist 74(01):1–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Huning TR, Wahl F (2016) You reap what you know: observability of soil quality, and political fragmentation. BEHL working paper WP2015-05

    Google Scholar 

  • Irwin DA (2017) Clashing over commerce: a history of US trade policy. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Iyer L (2010) Direct versus indirect colonial rule in India: Long-term consequences. Rev Econ Stat 92(4):693–713

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jedwab R, Moradi A (2016) The permanent effects of transportation revolutions in poor countries: evidence from Africa. Rev Econ Stat 98(2):268–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jedwab R, Johnson ND, Koyama M (2019) Negative shocks and mass persecutions: evidence from the Black Death. J Econ Growth 24(4):345–395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jha S (2015) Financial asset holdings and political attitudes: evidence from revolutionary England. Q J Econ 130(3):1485–1545

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson ND (2006) The cost of credibility: the company of general farms and fiscal stagnation in eighteenth century France. Essays Econ Bus Hist 24:16–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson ND, Koyama M (2014a) Tax farming and the origins of state capacity in England and France. Explor Econ Hist 51(1):1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson ND, Koyama M (2014b) Taxes, lawyers, and the decline of witch trials in France. J Law Econ 57:77–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson ND, Koyama M (2017) States and economic growth: capacity and constraints. Explor Econ Hist 64(2):1–2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson ND, Koyama M (2019) Persecution & toleration: the Long road to religious freedom. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Eric L. (1981, 2003), The European miracle, 3rd, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones E (2003) The European miracle, 3rd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Karaman K, Pamuk Ș (2013) Different paths to the modern state in Europe: the interaction between warfare, economic structure and political regime. Am Polit Sci Rev 107(3):603–626

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karayalcin C (2008) Divided we stand united we fall: the Hume-North-Jones mechanism for the rise of Europe. Int Econ Rev 49:973–997

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Katz LF, Goldin C (2008) The race between education and technology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenkel B, Paine J (2023) A theory of external wars and European parliaments. Int Organ 77:1–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein A, Ogilvie S (2016) Occupational structure in the Czech lands under the second serfdom. Econ Hist Rev 69(2):493–521

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ko CY, Koyama M, Sng T-H (2018) Unified China and divided Europe. Int Econ Rev 59(1):285–327

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koyama M (2016) The long transition from a natural state to a liberal economic order. Int Rev Law Econ. Forthcoming

    Google Scholar 

  • Koyama M (2021) Epidemic disease and the state: is there a tradeoff between public health and liberty? Public Choice. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-021-00944-4

  • Koyama M (2023) Legal capacity in historical political economy. In: Jenkins J, Rubin J (eds) The Oxford handbook of historical political economy. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Koyama M, Rubin J (2022) How the world became rich. Polity Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Koyama M, Moriguchi C, Sng T-H (2018) Geopolitics and Asia’s little divergence: state building in China and Japan after 1850. J Econ Behav Organ 155:178–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuran T (2010) The Long divergence. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Kyriazis NC, Zouboulakis MS (2004) Democracy, sea power and institutional change: an economic analysis of the Athenian naval law. Eur J Law Econ 17(1):117–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lane FC (1958) Economic consequences of organized violence. J Econ Hist 18(4):401–417

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee A, Paine J (2022) The great revenue divergence. Int Organ 77:1–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Leon G (2020) Feudalism, collaboration and path dependence in England’s political development. Br J Polit Sci 50(2):511–533

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levi M (1988) Of rule and revenue. University of California Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindert PH (2004) Growing public: social spending and economic growth since the eighteenth century. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lowes S, Montero E (2021) Concessions, violence, and indirect rule: evidence from The Congo Free State*. Q J Econ 136(4):2047–2091

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma D (2013) State capacity and the great divergence: the case of Qing China. Eurasian Geogr Econ 54(56):484–498

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma D, Rubin J (2019) The paradox of power: principal-agent problems and administrative capacity in Imperial China (and other absolutist regimes). J Comp Econ 47(2):277–294

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maden JB, Murtin F (2017) British economic growth since 1270: the role of education. J Econ Growth 22:229–272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maurer N (2013) The empire trap: the rise and fall of US intervention to protect American property overseas, 1893–1920. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mayshar J, Moav O, Neeman Z (2017) Geography, transparency and institutions. Am Polit Sci Rev 111(3):622–636

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCloskey DN (2010) Bourgeois dignity: why economics can’t explain the modern world. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Michalopoulos S, Papaioannou E (2013) Pre-colonial ethnic institutions and contemporary African development. Econometrica 81(1):113–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michalopoulos S, Papaioannou E (2016) The long-run effects of the scramble for Africa. Am Econ Rev 106(7):1802–1848

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchener KJ, Weidenmier M (2005) Empire, public goods, and the Roosevelt corollary. J Econ Hist 65(3):658–692

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchener KJ, Weidenmier M (2008) Trade and empire. Econ J 118(533):1805–1834

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mokyr J, Nye JVC (2007) Distribution coalitions, the industrial revolution, and the origins of economic growth in Britain. South Econ J 74(1):50–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Musgrave R (1959) Theory of public finance; a study in public economy. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Naidu S, Yuchtman N (2013) Coercive contract enforcement: law and the labor market in nineteenth century industrial Britain. Am Econ Rev 103(1):107–144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North DC (1981) Structure and change in economic history. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • North DC, Thomas RP (1971) The rise and fall of the manorial system: a theoretical model. J Econ Hist 31(4):777–803

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North DC, Thomas RP (1973) The rise of the Western world. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • North DC, Weingast B (1989) Constitutions and commitment: the evolution of institutions governing public choice in seventeenth century England. J Econ Hist 49:803–832

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North DC, Wallis JJ, Weingast BR (2009) Violence and social orders: a conceptual framework for interpreting recorded human history. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nunn N (2008) The long-term effects of Africa’s slave trades. Q J Econ 123(1):139–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nunn N, Wantchekon L (2011) The slave trade and the origins of mistrust in Africa. Am Econ Rev 101(7):3221–3252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien P (1982) European economic development: the contribution of the periphery. Econ Hist Rev 35(1):1–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien PK (2011) The nature and historical evolution of an exceptional fiscal state and its possible significance for the precocious commercialization and industrialization of the British economy from Cromwell to Nelson. Econ Hist Rev 64(2):408–446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien PK, de la Escosura LP (1998) The costs and benefits for Europeans from their empires overseas. Revista de Historia Económica/J Iberian Latin Am Econ Hist 16(1):29–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ober J (2015) The rise and fall of classical Greece. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ogilvie S (2007) ‘Whatever is, is right’? Economic institutions in pre-industrial Europe (Tawney lecture 2006). Econ Hist Rev 60(4):649–684

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogilvie S, Carus AW (2014) Chapter 8: Institutions and economic growth in historical perspective. In: Aghion P, Durlauf SN (eds) Handbook of economic growth, vol 2. Elsevier, pp 403–513

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson M (1965) The logic of collective action. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson M (1993) Dictatorship, democracy, and development. Am Polit Sci Rev 87:567–576

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oppenheim F (1922) The state. B.W. Huebsch, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Palma N, Reis J (2021) Can autocracy promote literacy? Evidence from a cultural alignment success story. J Econ Behav Organ 186:412–436. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268121000755

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker G (1976) The “military revolution,” 1560-1660–a myth? J Mod Hist 48(2):195–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker G (1988) The military revolution: military innovation and the rise of the West, 1500–1800. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Persson T, Tabellini G (2000) Political economics: explaining economic policy. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Pincus S (2009) 1688 the first modern revolution. Yale University Press, New Haven/London

    Google Scholar 

  • Pincus SCA, Robinson JA (2014) What really happened during the glorious revolution? In: Galiani S, Sened I (eds) Institutions, property rights, and economic growth: the legacy of Douglass North. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 192–222

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pirenne H (1925) Medieval Cities. Doubleday Anchor Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Prior SJ (1878) The life of the right Honourable Edmund burke. G. Bell, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Puga D, Trefler D (2014) International trade and institutional change: medieval Venice’s response to globalization*. Q J Econ 129(2):753–821

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riker WH (1962) The theory of political coalitions. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg N, Birdzell LE (1986) How the west grew rich, the economic transformation of the industrial world. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenthal J-L (1992) The fruits of revolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenthal J-L, Bin Wong R (2011) Before and beyond divergence. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rubin J (2017) Rulers, religion, and riches: why the west got rich and the Middle East did not. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Salter A, Young A (2018) Polycentric sovereignty: the medieval constitution, governance quality, and the wealth of nations. Soc Sci Q. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12619

  • Scheidel W (2019) Escape from Rome. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sng T-H (2014) Size and dynastic decline: the principal-agent problem in late imperial China 1700–1850. Explor Econ Hist 54:107–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sokoloff KL, Engerman SL (2000) History lessons: institutions, factor endowments, and paths of development in the New World. J Econ Perspect 14(3):217–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stasavage D (2002) Credible commitment in early modern Europe: North and Weingast revisited. J Law Econ Org 18(1):155–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stasavage D (2003) Public debt and the birth of the democratic state. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stasavage D (2011) States of credit. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stasavage D (2014) Was Weber right? The role of urban autonomy in Europe’s rise. Am Polit Sci Rev 108:337–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stasavage D (2016) What we can learn from the early history of sovereign debt. Explor Econ Hist 59(Supplement C):1–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stigler GJ (1971) The theory of economic regulation. Bell J Econ Manag Sci 2(1):3–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strayer J (1965) Feudalism in western europe. In: Coulborn R (ed) The idea of feudalism. Archon Books, Hamden Connecticut, pp 15–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Tawney RH (1926) Religion and the rise of capitalism. Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  • The Prize in Economics 1993 – Press Release (1993). http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1993/press.html

  • Tilly C (1975) Reflections on the history of European state-making. In: Tilly C (ed) The formation of nation states in Western Europe. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 3–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilly C (1990) Coercion, capital, and European states, AD 990-1990. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Troesken W (2015) The pox of liberty: how the constitution left Americans rich, free, and prone to infection. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vries P (2015) State, economy, and the great divergence: Great Britain and China, 1680s–1850s. Bloomsbury, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y (2022) The rise and fall of Imperial China: the social origins of state development. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Weber M (1930) The protestant ethic and the Spirit of capitalism. Allen and Unwin, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittfogel K (1957) Oriental despotism: a comparative study of Total power. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Xue MM (2021) Autocratic rule and social capital: Evidence from imperial China. Mimeo

    Google Scholar 

  • Zanden JL, Van EB, Bosker M (2012) The rise and decline of European parliaments, 1188–1789. Econ Hist Rev 65(3):835–861

    Google Scholar 

  • Ziblatt D (2017) Conservative parties and the birth of democracy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Study of Public Choice, Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Mark Koyama

Authors
  1. Mark Koyama
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Koyama .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  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

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Koyama, M. (2023). Political Economy. In: Diebolt, C., Haupert, M. (eds) Handbook of Cliometrics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_54-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_54-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40458-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40458-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Political Economy
    Published:
    27 October 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_54-2

  2. Original

    Political Economy
    Published:
    05 March 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_54-1

Search

Navigation