Today’s Economic History and Tomorrow’s Scholars

Abstract

While first highlighted by Romer (1994), economic history has only continued to become more integrated into the broader discipline. This paper utilizes a sample of recent articles in top Economics journals to help assess what characteristics economic history papers share and a sample of recent graduate syllabi to examine the role that a required economic history class can play more broadly in the training of economists. The samples confirm that economic history research utilizing a wide range of topics and tools is being published in top economics journals and taught in economic history classes. The findings suggest that economic history is a complement to the research of other fields and that a required economic history class offers an early applied course that could help students regardless of what field they go on to pursue.

Keywords: Economics, Economic History, Graduate Curriculum, Scholarly Identity

JEL Classification: A23, N01