#Econhist papers I (mostly) admire, May 2024
On merchant letters, childcare, hurricanes, innovation, sages, and comparing the Khoe and the Cree...
Every month I handpick and review ten standout papers in economic history. This month, I’ve added a complementary ChatGPT-generated haiku! As a paid member, you’ll unlock exclusive access to the complete, curated list.
1. Early-Modern Globalization and the Extent of Indigenous Agency: Trade, Commodities, and Ecology
By Ann M. Carlos, Erik Green, Calumet Links and Angela Redish
Research question: The paper examines how Indigenous nations and European companies responded to new trading opportunities during early-modern globalisation. The study focuses on the Cree nations and the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), and the Khoe nations and the Dutch East India Company (VOC), analysing the disparate outcomes that resulted from these interactions.
Main findings: The main results indicate that the Cree nations experienced an increase in their standard of living, while the Khoe nations suffered a loss of land and cattle. The paper argues that these outcomes were influenced by the decades of intermittent contact between Indigenous nations and European traders before the establishment of permanent trading posts. The study also emphasises the importance of learning, bargaining power, and ecological context in determining the success and failures of these trade interactions.
Whispers of trade routes,
Indigenous strength endures,
Cree and Khoe’s tale lives.
2. Inventing modern invention: the professionalization of technological progress in the US
By Matte Hartog, Andres Gomez-Lievano, Ricardo Hausmann and Frank Neffke
Research question: The paper examines how the professionalisation of technological progress in the United States evolved from the mid-19th to mid-20th century, focusing on the transition from traditional craftsmanship-based innovation to a modern system characterised by teamwork and industrial research laboratories. It investigates the roles of inventors, organisations, and technological changes using digitised patent yearbooks and demographic data from census records.
Main findings: The research reveals that starting in the 1920s, the US saw a rapid shift from individual craftsmanship to a new system dominated by teams of professional engineers working in industrial research labs. This shift resulted in a significant increase in the number of patents featuring novel technological combinations, particularly in large cities, which became new hubs of innovation. The professionalisation of invention also introduced new barriers, leading to lower participation rates for women and foreign-born inventors, highlighting the exclusionary nature of the emerging innovation system.
Old crafts fade away,
Engineers in labs create,
Innovation’s rise.
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