ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS HISTORY

In accordance with the learning objectives of the Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Management, the course provides an overview of key economic, industrial and organizational changes over the long term. The course aims at developing the students’ ability to critically analyze, comment and debate main historical economic and business processes, singling out the main actors involved, and the main historical turn-arounds (Globalization, Great Convergence & Great Divergence, Industrial Revolutions).

1. Students distinguish, compare and appraise different theoretical approaches to the study of economic facts in the past;
2. Students recognize and describe the key economic, industrial and organizational changes from early-modern to contemporary times;
3. Students explain historical economic dynamics as the result of the interplay of multiple variables (market, firms, institutions)
4. Students comprehend the role of institutions as the rules of the game for economic life, and the transformations of the firm structure.
5. Students comment and debate case studies, are able to place them in their historical context, critically discuss sources and methodologies.

The course is designed for second year undergraduate students, who do not have previous knowledge of economic and business history.

During week 1, students will become acquainted with the main approaches to economic and business
history and their empirical tools. Week 2 will be devoted to the preindustrial economic growth and to the
origins of the First Industrial Revolution and the factory system; week 3 lessons will focus on technological
change, the Second Industrial Revolution and the origins of the large corporation; during week 4, the focus
will be on the Interwar years, the Great Depression and the Golden Age of economic growth, 1950-73; in
week 5, students will discuss 20th century globalization and the transformations of global capitalism.
List of Topics
WEEK 1
1. Introduction and rules of the game (5.2)
a. Economic History: Debates and Methods (Cipolla, Between two cultures)
2. Business History: Debates and Methods (6.2)
3. The Atlantic Economy and the Firm in the Early Modern Age (7.2)
a. Growth in pre-industrial economy
b. The firm in pre-industrial economy
WEEK 2
4. The Industrious Revolution and the Industrial Revolution (12.2)
a. The entrepreneur of the first industrial revolution
5. The First Globalization and the Firm during the First Industrial Revolution (13.2)
a. The Great Divergence: Why the West Grew Rich?
b. Diffusion of the first Industrial revolution
6. Presentation – Josiah Wedgwood and the First Industrial Revolution (14.2)
WEEK 3
7. The British Decline and the Second industrial Revolution (19.2)
a. Germany and US
b. Multinational Corporations
8. Presentation – Henry Ford, Alfred Sloan and the Three Phases of Marketing (21.2)
WEEK 4
9. The American Century and the Third Industrial Revolution (26.2)
a. Soviet Globalization, Cold War and East-West Trade
10. The Rise of the Rest and the new Global Economy (27.2)
a. China, India, USSR (Allen)
11. Presentation: Toyoda Automatic Looms and Toyota Automobiles (28.2) and IBM an the Two
Thomas J. Watson
WEEK 5
12. Monetary and Financial History (4.3)
13. Monetary and Financial History (5.3)
14. Presentation. The Deutsche Bank (6.3)
WEEK 6
15. EXAM PREPARATION (13.3)

R. C. Allen, Global Economic History. A very Short Introduction, OUP, 2011

Selected chapters from:
J. Jones, Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century, New York,
Oxford University Press, 2004.
F. Amatori, A. Colli, Business History. Complexities and Comparisons, London, Routledge, 2011
T. McCraw. Creating Modern Capitalism, Harvard University Press, 1997

Asssment will be the result of a combination of smaller exercises:
1) Written exam (open question - on the textbook and selected chapters), two hours;
2) group oral presentations on a case study - voluntary, plus 1-2-3 points

The course will be based on Frontal Lectures and guided class discussions; online and in class exercises and group activities will be organized and graded.
Materials will be available through Moodle with the exception of R. C. Allen, Global Economic History. A very Short Introduction, OUP, 2011

English

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development