How much could economics gain from history: the contribution of cliometrics

Abstract

Is cliometrics a discipline that could help economists to close the gap between theory and empirical analysis? For many authors, and certainly many of its protagonists, cliometrics appears to be first of all a new branch of history, using economic theories, tools and techniques to provide answers mainly to historiographical debates and not so much to economic debates per se. Could nevertheless this discipline help economists to come closer to physics by enabling them to discover true laws in economics? More modestly some recent work in cliometrics performed by economists (stricto sensu) reveals the possibility of cliometrics to be an auxiliary discipline of economics (and not solely of history). As such, it should form part of the basic toolkit of all properly educated economists. In this paper we give a survey on the key methodological issue of existence (and type) of laws in economics and the proper role that could be assigned to cliometrics to best serve the development of economics in this perspective.

Is economic history changing its nature? Evidence from top journals

“…However, after the initial enthusiasm, its appeal faded fast (McCloskey 1976). Parker (1986) and more recently Demeulemeester and Diebolt (2007), in the first presentation of this journal, argued that the empirical nature of economic history could offer many insights for economists, although American economists of the 1980s and 1990s were not so impressed. Perhaps they were not as excited by works on European or world economic history as they had been by the original core Cliometrics results on American history (Diebolt and Haupert 2021).…”

Reflection on reflections: review essay on reflections on the cliometric revolution: conversations with economic historians

“…(LCW: 9) In addition, the work of Keynes (1936) and the intellectual development spurred by changes in macroeconomics reinforced the need for greater quantification of national income accounts and the role played by various sectors in the economy. A parallel tradition is also to be found within the field of econometrics, for example, see Demeulemeester-Diebolt (2007). Developing along side this greater interest in quantification was the development of the statistical tools necessary to analyse these data.…”

Review of periodical literature published in 2007

“…Nonetheless, one major change has been the hollowing out of economic history and some ambivalence about its relationship with economics. Demeulemeester and Diebolt see cliometrics as the means by which history can be injected back into economics. Elsewhere, however, Weintraub warns that historians of economics have essentially lost their battle to be taken seriously by economists, and that the result has been a collapse in the field's institutional vigour.…”