Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-09T22:38:15.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Do States Do? Politics and Economic History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2015

Philip T. Hoffman
Philip T. Hoffman*
Affiliation:
Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of Business Economics and Professor of History, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125. E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although politics has a huge effect on economic outcomes, we still know too little about what public goods states furnish or what determines the laws, regulations, and policies that states adopt. Worse yet, we do not really understand how states arise in the first place and how they gain the ability to tax. There are numerous unanswered questions here that economic historians can profitably work on, and their research will be particularly valuable if they model the politics, gather data on taxation and spending by local and central governments, and pay serious attention to the historical details and to political behavior that may not involve optimization.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 303 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author would like to thank the editors, Jonathan Chapman, Tracy Dennison, Rod Kiewiet, Morgan Kousser, Ed McCaffery, Kate Norberg, Gilles Postel-Vinay, and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal for suggestions and criticisms. The author also benefitted from the advice generously given by the late Ross Thomson. Research for this project was supported by NSF grant SES-1227237.

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James A.. “Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 117, no. 4 (2002): 1231–94.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown, 2012.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Glaeser, Edward, and Sacerdote, Bruce. “Why Doesn't the US Have a European-style Welfare System?” Working paper No. w8524. NBER, 2001.Google Scholar
Arifovic, Jasmina, and Ledyard, John. “Individual Evolutionary Learning, Other-Regarding P, and the Voluntary Contributions Mechanism.” Journal of Public Economics 96, nos. 9-10 (2012): 808–23.Google Scholar
Barth, Fredrik. “Ecologic Relationships of Ethnic Groups in Swat, North Pakistan.” American Anthropologist 58, no. 6 (1956): 1079–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beik, William. Absolutism and Society in Seventeenth-Century France. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Beckerman, Stephen, Erickson, Pamela I., Yost, James, et al. “Life Histories, Blood Revenge, and Reproductive Success among the Waorani of Ecuador.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, no. 20 (2009): 8134–9.Google Scholar
Besley, Timothy, and Persson, Torsten. “The Origins of State Capacity: Property Rights, Taxation, and Politics.” American Economic Review 99, no. 4 (2009): 1218–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besley, Timothy, and Persson, Torsten. “State Capacity, Conflict, and Development.” Econometrica 78, no. 1 (2010): 1–34.Google Scholar
Bogart, Daniel. “Turnpike Trusts and the Transportation Revolution in 18th Century England.” Explorations in Economic History 42, no. 4 (2005): 479–508.Google Scholar
Bogart, Daniel. “A Global Perspective on Railway Inefficiency and the Rise of State Ownership, 1880-1912.” Explorations in Economic History 47, no. 2 (2010): 158–78.Google Scholar
Bogart, Daniel, and Richardson, Gary. “Property Rights and Parliament in Industrializing Britain.” Journal of Law and Economics 54, no. 2 (2011): 41–74.Google Scholar
Bowles, Samuel, and Gintis, Herbert. A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Brandt, Loren, Ma, Debin, and Rawski, Thomas G.. “From Divergence to Convergence: Re-evaluating the History Behind China's Economic Boom.” Journal of Economic Literature 52, no. 1 (2014): 45–123.Google Scholar
Brewer, John. Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State, 1688-1783. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Brown, Peter. The Rise of Western Christendom. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996.Google Scholar
Burbank, Jane, and Cooper, Frederick. Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Carsten, Francis L. The Origins of Prussia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954.Google Scholar
Chapman, Jonathan. “The Franchise, Taxes, and Public Goods: The Political Economy of Infrastructure Investment in Nineteenth Century England.” Unpublished paper, California Institute of Technology, 2014a.Google Scholar
Chapman, Jonathan. “Local Government Sanitation Investment and Mortality from Waterborne Disease in England and Wales, 1871-1890.” Unpublished paper, California Institute of Technology Working Paper, 2014b.Google Scholar
Chen, Xi, and Nordhaus, William D.. “Using Luminosity Data as a Proxy for Economic Statistics.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 21 (2011): 8589–94.Google Scholar
Cutler, David, and Miller, Grant. “The Role of Public Health Improvements in Health Advances: The Twentieth-Century United States.” Demography 42, no. 1 (2005): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clodfelter, Michael. Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Guide to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500-2000. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2002.Google Scholar
Collins, Roger. Early Medieval Europe 300-1000. London: Macmillan, 1991.Google Scholar
Cornette, Joël. Le roi de guerre: Essai sur la souveraineté dans la France du Grand Siècle. Paris: Payot et Rivages, 1993.Google Scholar
Dincecco, Mark. “Fiscal Centralization, Limited Government, and Public Revenues in Europe, 1650-1913.” The Journal of Economic History 69, no. 1 (2009): 48–103.Google Scholar
Dincecco, Mark. Political Transformations and Public Finances: Europe, 1650-1913. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisner, Manuel. “Killing Kings: Patterns of Regicide in Europe.” British Journal of Criminology 51, no. 3 (2011): 556–77.Google Scholar
Eloranta, Jari. “From the Great Illusion to the Great War: Military Spending Behaviour of the Great Powers, 1870-1913.” European Review of Economic History 11, no. 2 (2007): 255–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Stephan R. Freedom and Growth: The Rise of Markets and States in Europe, 1300-1750. London: Routledge, 2000.Google Scholar
Fairbank, John K., ed. The Cambridge History of China. Volume 10, part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Ferrie, Joseph P., and Troesken, Werner. “Water and Chicago's Mortality Transition, 1850-1925.” Explorations in Economic History 45, no. 1 (2008): 1–16.Google Scholar
Fontvieille, Louis. Evolution et croissance de l’état français. Paris: Institut des sciences mathématiques et économiques appliquées, 1976.Google Scholar
Frydman, Carola, and Molloy, Raven S.. “Does Tax Policy Affect Executive Compensation? Evidence from Postwar Tax Reforms.” Journal of Public Economics 95, no. 11 (2011): 1425–37.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia, and Katz, Lawrence F.. The Race between Education and Technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Gray, Sandra, Beth Sundal, Mary, Wiebusch, Brandi, et al. “Cattle Raiding, Cultural Survival, and Adaptability of East African Pastoralists.” Current Anthropology 44, Supplement: Multiple Methodologies in Anthropological Research (December 2003): S3–S30.Google Scholar
Guenée, Bernard. L'occident aux XIVe et XVe siècles: Les états. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1971.Google Scholar
Heckman, James J. “Policies to Foster Human Capital.” Research in Economics 54, no. 1 (2000): 3–56.Google Scholar
Heckman, James J. “Skill Formation and the Economics of Investing in Disadvantaged Children.” Science 312 (June 2006): 1900–2.Google Scholar
Henneman, John Bell. Royal Taxation in Fourteenth-Century France: The Development of War Financing, 1322-1359. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Henneman, John Bell. Royal Taxation in Fourteenth-Century France: The Captivity and Ransom of John II, 1356-1370. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Philip T. “Why Was It Europeans Who Conquered the World?” The Journal of Economic History 72, no. 3 (2012): 601–33.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Philip T. Why Did Europe Conquer the World? Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Philip T., and Norberg, Kathryn, eds. Fiscal Crises, Liberty, and Representative Government 1450-1789. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, Philip T., Postel-Vinay, Gilles, and Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent. Surviving Large Losses: Fiscal Crises, the Middle Class, and the Development of Capital Markets. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Hui, Victoria Tin-bor. War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Jackson, Matthew O., and Morelli, Massimo. “Political Bias and War.” American Economic Review 97, no. 4 (2007): 1353–73.Google Scholar
Karaman, K. Kivanç, and Pamuk, Şevket. “Ottoman State Finances in European Perspective, 1500-1914.” The Journal of Economic History 70, no. 3 (2010): 593–629.Google Scholar
Kesztenbaum, Lionel, and Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent. “The Health cost of Living in a City: The Case of France at the End of the 19th Century.” Explorations in Economic History 48, no. 2 (2011): 207–225.Google Scholar
Kesztenbaum, Lionel, and Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent. “The Democratization of Longevity; Wealth and Mortality in Paris, 1870-1930.” Unpublished paper, California Institute of Technology, 2012.Google Scholar
Lampi, Philip. “The Federalist Party Resurgence, 1808-1816.” Journal of the Early Republic 33, no. 2 (2013): 255–83.Google Scholar
Levi, Margaret. Of Rule and Revenue. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Lindert, Peter H. “What Limits Social Spending?” Explorations in Economic History 33, no. 1 (1996): 1–34.Google Scholar
Lindert, Peter H. Growing Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth Since the Eighteenth Century. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Lindholm, Charles. “The Structure of Violence among the Swat Pukhtun.” Ethnology 20, no. 2 (1981): 147–56.Google Scholar
Lizzeri, Alessandro, and Persico, Nicola. “Why Did the Elites Extend the Suffrage? Democracy and the Scope of Government, with an Application to Britain's ‘Age of Reform’.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 119, no. 2 (2004): 707–65.Google Scholar
Lutz, Liselotte, ed. Lexikon des Mittelalters. Munich: Artemis, 1977-.Google Scholar
Maddison, Angus. Contours of the World Economy, 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1977.Google Scholar
Martin, Isaac. Rich People's Movements: Grassroots Movements to Untax the One Percent. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Mathew, Sarah, and Boyd, Robert. “Punishment Sustains Large-Scale Cooperation in Prestate Warfare.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 28 (2011): 11375–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCaffery, Edward J., and Cohen, Linda R.. “Shakedown at Cuggi Gulch: The New Logic of Collective Action.” North Carolina Law Review 84, no. 4 (2006): 1159–252.Google Scholar
McCarty, Nolan, Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard. Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Brian R., and Deane, Phyllis. Abstract of British Historical Statistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C., and Weingast, Barry R.. “Constitutions and Commitment: Evolution of the Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England.” The Journal of Economic History 49, no. 4 (1989): 803–32.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C., Joseph Wallis, John, and Weingast, Barry R.. Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Recorded Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olmstead Alan, L., and Rhode, Paul W.. Creating Abundance: Biological Innovation and American Agricultural Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Parrott, David. The Business of War: Military Enterprise and Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Palfrey, Thomas R., and Pogorelskiy, Kirill B.. “Voting with Communication: An Experimental Study of Correlated Equilibrium.” Unpublished paper, California Institute of Technology, 2014.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas. Le capital au XXIe siècle. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 2013.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas, and Saez, Emmanuel. “Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 118, no. 1 (2013): 1–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piketty, Thomas, Saez, Emmanuel, and Stantcheva, Stefanie. “Optimal Taxation of Top Labor Incomes: A Tale of Three Elasticities.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 6, no. 1 (2014): 230–71.Google Scholar
Pincus, Steve, and Robinson, James. “The Rise of the Interventionist State.” Unpublished paper, Yale University, 2012.Google Scholar
Pinker, Steven. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. New York: Viking, 2011.Google Scholar
Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard. “D-Nominate after 10 Years: A Comparative Update to Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 26, no. 1 (2001): 5–29.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Howard, and Voeten, Erik. “Analyzing Roll Calls with Perfect Spatial Voting: France 1946-1958.” American Journal of Political Science 48, no. 3 (2004): 620–32.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent. The Fruits of Revolution: Property Rights, Litigation, and French Agriculture, 1700-1860. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Schroeder, Paul W. The Transformation of European Politics, 1763-1848. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Thomson, Ross. “Government-Led Innovation in a Period of Small Government: The United States, 1820-1941.” Paper delivered at the Economic History Association Meetings, September 2014.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. Coercion, Capital and European States, A.D. 990-1990. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1990.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles, Tilly, Louise, and Tilly, Richard. The Rebellious Century, 1830-1930. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Troesken, Werner. “Race, Disease, and the Provision of Water in American Cities, 1889-1921.” The Journal of Economic History 61, no. 3 (2001): 750–76.Google Scholar
Troesken, Werner. “Regime Change and Corruption: A History of Public Utility Regulation.” In Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America's Economic History, edited by Glaeser, Edward L. and Goldin, Claudia, 259–84. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troesken, Werner. “The Palliative Effects of Property Rights.” Paper delivered at the California Institute of Technology, 14 March 2014.Google Scholar
Turchin, Peter, Currie, Thomas E., Turner, Edward A.L., et al. “War, Space, and the Evolution of Old World Complex Societies.” Publications of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 41 (2013): 16384–9.Google Scholar
Von Glahn, Richard. “Household Registration, Property Rights, and Social Obligations in Imperial China: Principles and Practices.” In Registration and Recognition: Documenting the Person in World History, edited by Breckenridge, Keith and Szreter, Simon, pp. 39–66. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Vierhaus, Rudolf. Deutschland im Zeitalter des Absolutismus. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984.Google Scholar
Volckart, Oliver. “State Building by Bargaining for Monopoly Rents.” Kyklos 53, no. 3 (2000): 265–93.Google Scholar
Wallis, John Joseph. “Government Finance and Employment.” In Historical Statistics of the United States, edited by Carter, Susan R. et al., Millenial Edition on Line. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Wallis, John Joseph, Fishback, Prive V., and Kantor, Shawn. “Politics, Relief, and Reform: Roosevelt's Efforts to Control Corruption and Political Manipulation During the New Deal.” In Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America's Economic History, edited by Glaeser, Edward L. and Goldin, Claudia, 343–72. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. Gesammelte politische Schriften von Max Weber, edited by Flitner, E.. Potsdamer Internet-Ausgabe, 1999. Available at www.uwe-holtz.uni-bonn.de (accessed 8 August 2014).Google Scholar