New Approaches to Economic History

Abstract

This note reviews new approaches to topics in economic history that have come into practice in the last 20 years or so. The three main approaches are cliodynamics, big history and deep history. All three extend the time scale of economic history investigations to beyond that of written history and involve a variety of disciplines other than economics and history. Cliodynamics and big history are essentially quantitative. They use models to interpret historical phenomena and test hypotheses derived from the models. An example of a research topic is provided for each of the three new approaches. These new areas offer many opportunities for the student of economic history.