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History and Economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Hugh Rockoff
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Extract

In a well-known paper published some years ago Donald McCloskey (1976) addressed his fellow economists on the importance of history to their discipline. He argued that greater emphasis on economic history would make for better economics and for better economists. It cannot be said that McCloskey’s arguments were taken to heart. The tendency for economists to expend their effort on (and award their honors for) the refinement of mathematical models and statistical techniques has continued unabated and perhaps has increased. This has led many scholars in related disciplines, social science historians in particular, to believe that economists are uninterested in history and unreceptive to arguments based on historical evidence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , Summer 1991 , pp. 239 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1991 

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