J. Bradford DeLong: August 17, 2009
1
Economic History Field Exam
J. Bradford DeLong
Jan de Vries
University of California at Berkeley and NBER
delong@econ.berkeley.edu
August 17, 2009
Do three of six:
1. What similarities are there between the current financial crisis and
recession and previous financial crises and recessions? What lessons on
how previous crises were successfully handled do you believe have
relevance for today? What lessons about how previous crises were not
successfully handled do you believe serve as fruitful negative examples
for today?
2. Greg Clark argues that the world economy was more-or-less
completely stuck in a Malthusian trap until the nineteenth century. Jan de
Vries argues that that was not so for the period of the “Commercial
Revolution”—say, 1400 to 1800. Who do you think has the better of the
argument, and why?
3. For twenty-five modern macroeconomists have been arguing that the
“Great Moderation” has shown that central bankers have finally tamed the
business cycle. What episodes from history should economic historians
have been drawing on for the past twenty-five years to scornfully mock
modern macroeconomists?
