Discussion paper
DP15795 Merger or acquisition? An introduction to the Handbook of Historical economics
The relationship between history and economics as academic disciplines is
methodologically subtle and sociologically contested. If the Cliometric revolution
can be characterized as an acquisition of economics by history, the most
recent trends in Historical Economics appear to turn this relationship on its
head. In this Introduction we read the chapters of the Handbook as a forceful
argument in favor of a merger between the two disciplines rather than the acquisition
of one by the other; a merger which combines, notably, the detailed
knowledge of historical sources, the capability of distilling complex historical
processes into a model, and the statistical/econometric skills for identification
and estimation.
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