Historical School
Part of the series where I am trying to learn more about each of the major economic schools of thought.
Date Created:
Refences
Related
- Staples Thesis
- The staples thesis is a theory of export-led growth. The theory
has its origins in research into Canadian social, political, and economic history carried out in Canadian universities ... by members of what were then known as departments of political economy
.
- The staples thesis is a theory of export-led growth. The theory
- Gustav von Schmoller
- Hew as a leading Sozialpolitiker and a founder and long-time chairman of the Verein für Socialpolitik, the German Economic association, which continues to exist. He traced his ideas back to heterodox liberalism. His goal was to reconcile the Prussian monarchy and bureaucracy
with the idea of the Liberal state and complemented by the best elements of parliamentarianism
to carry out social reform.
- Hew as a leading Sozialpolitiker and a founder and long-time chairman of the Verein für Socialpolitik, the German Economic association, which continues to exist. He traced his ideas back to heterodox liberalism. His goal was to reconcile the Prussian monarchy and bureaucracy
- Max Weber
- German sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sciences more generally. His ideas continue to influence social theory and research.
- Joseph Schumpeter
- Austrian political economist. He served briefly as the Finance Minister of Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor of Harvard University, where he remained until the end of his career, and in 1939 obtained American citizenship.
- He was one of the most influential economists of the early 20th century, and popularized the term
creative destruction
.
- Creative Destruction
- A concept in economics that describes a process in which new innovations replace and make obsolete older innovations.
Notes
The historical school of economics was an approach to academic economics and to public administration that emerged in the 19th century in Germany and held way there until well into the 20th century. The professors involved compiled massive economic histories of Germany and Europe. Numerous Americans were their students. The school was opposed to theoretical economics. Prominent leaders included Gustav von Schmoller (1838-1917) and Max Weber (1864-1920) in Germany, and Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) in Austria and the United States.
Tenets
- The historical school held that history was the key source of knowledge about human actions and economic matters, since economics was culture-specific, and hence not generalizable over space and time.
- The school rejected the universal validity of economic theorems.
- They saw economics as resulting from careful empirical and historical analysis instead of from logic and mathematics. The school rejected mathematical modeling.
- Most members of the school were also
Sozialpolitiker
(social policy advocates) - concerned with conditions of the common man during industrialization. They were criticized as armchair revolutionaries. - The historical school largely controlled appointments to chairs of economics in German universities.
- The historical school was involved in the Methodenstreit (
strife over method
) with the Austrian school, whose orientation was more theoretical and aprioristic.
Influence in Britain and US
- The historical school had a significant impact on Britain.
- Thorold Rogers (1823-1890) was the Tooke Professor of Statistics and Economic Science at King's College London and is best known for compiling A History of Agriculture and Prices in England from 1259 to 1793, which is still useful to scholars.
- Canadian scholars influenced by the school were led by Harold Innis (1894-1952) at Toronto. Hist staples thesis holds that Canada's culture, political history and economy have been decisively influenced by the exploitation and export of a series of
staples
such as fur, fishing, lumber, wheat, mined metals and coal.
After 1930, the historical school declined or disappeared in most economic departments. It lingered in history departments and business schools. The major influence in the 1930s and 1940s was Joseph Schumpeter with hist dynamic, change-oriented, and innovation-based economics. Although his writings could be critical of the school, Schumpeter's work on the role of innovation and entrepreneurship can be seen as a continuation of ideas originated by the historical school [...]