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Spleen: The Failures of the Cliometric School

Author

Listed:
  • Stefano Fenoaltea

    (Fellow, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Turin; Associate, CESMEP, Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Turin)

Abstract

This paper argues that we cliometricians have failed as economists, because we did not drag the profession out of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth; that we have failed as historians, because we do not take measurement seriously, and misapprehend "the data"; and that we failed signally as economic historians, because we backcast "GDP" as if it measured gross domestic product.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefano Fenoaltea, 2019. "Spleen: The Failures of the Cliometric School," Quaderni di storia economica (Economic History Working Papers) 44, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:workqs:qse_44
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    Cited by:

    1. Laurent Gauthier, 2022. "Extending Cliometrics to Ancient History with Complexity," Working Papers hal-03754911, HAL.
    2. Rohne Till, Emelie & Schwaag Serger, Sylvia & Axelsson, Tobias & Andersson, Martin, 2024. "Transformation and resilience in times of change: A historical perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    3. Emanuele Felice, 2020. "LÕalbatros. Ricordo di Stefano Fenoaltea (The albatros. In memory of Stefano Fenoaltea)," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 73(292), pages 397-407.
    4. Fenoaltea, Stefano, 2020. "Reconstructing The Past: The Measurement Of Aggregate Product," MPRA Paper 97042, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Filippo Battistoni & Marco Martinez, 2022. "Rome and the Polis: Tradition and Change in the Financial Accounts of Tauromenion, 1st Century B.C," Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy), vol. 56(1), pages 149-176, June.
    6. Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert, 2020. "How Cliometrics has Infiltrated Economics – and Helped to Improve the Discipline," Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy), vol. 54(1), pages 219-230, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • A10 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - General
    • B40 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - General
    • N01 - Economic History - - General - - - Development of the Discipline: Historiographical; Sources and Methods

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