Inconvenient glow : cliometrics and the golden age of capitalism
By: RUGITSKY, Fernando.
Material type: ArticlePublisher: São Paulo : Editora 34, out./dez. 2014Revista de Economia Política = Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 34, 4, p. 587-607Abstract: This paper aims to criticize the recent cliometrics literature on the so-called golden age of capitalism. The works of Nicholas Crafts, Gianni Toniolo, and Barry Eichengreen are reconstructed in order to reveal the main characteristics of this research program. Its narrow quantitative focus, its reliance on theoretical propositions borrowed from neoclassical economics, and its auspicious interpretation of the postwar reconstruction are the main focus of the criticism presented. Finally, the cliometricians attempt to historicize the golden age and de-historicize the following decades is related to the ideological understanding of the recent decades as a period of great moderation.This paper aims to criticize the recent cliometrics literature on the so-called golden age of capitalism. The works of Nicholas Crafts, Gianni Toniolo, and Barry Eichengreen are reconstructed in order to reveal the main characteristics of this research program. Its narrow quantitative focus, its reliance on theoretical propositions borrowed from neoclassical economics, and its auspicious interpretation of the postwar reconstruction are the main focus of the criticism presented. Finally, the cliometricians attempt to historicize the golden age and de-historicize the following decades is related to the ideological understanding of the recent decades as a period of great moderation.
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