Topics in Economic History

COMPETENCES AND SKILLS THAT WILL BE ACQUIRED AND LEARNING RESULTS.

- Explain the economic, social and political problems associated with structural change and
economic growth.
- Discuss the Spanish case in a comparative context with other countries at similar levels of per capita
income, or during the interwar period.
- Develop the student's ability to look for relevant information to support an argument, and to
present it with clarity, both in class and in a written essay.
- Write an essay or critical survey on the subject.
- Learn to analyse economic problems using a multidisciplinary approach.
- Develop the ability to ask questions related to the subject, and resolve them using economic
analysis and quantitative methods.
- An ability to adopt an open attitude to the different problems associated with Spanish economic
growth and structural change
- An ability to criticize constructively, as well as to accept criticism.
- An ability to understand and find solutions to problems in Less Developed Countries today.
- Awaken the curiosity of students of to complicated problems present in today's world.

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS: PROGRAMME

The course examines the economic, social and political problems that arise with structural change and
economic modernisation. It is divided into three major blocks:
Introduction. Agriculture, structural change and economic growth
A. Living Standards, Inequality and Democracy
1. Poverty and inequality in the Spanish countryside in the 1930s
2. The nature of the farm
3. Long run growth and the dynamics of regional agriculture
4. Democracy, communism, fascism and the European agriculture in the interwar period
B. The State and rural development
5. Farmers and the State: problems of collective action
6. Social capital and the limits to rural cooperation
7. Economic and political obstacles to technological change
8. Rural farmer - urban consumer: the political economy of food and regulation
C. Property rights and the political economy of land reform
9. How secure were property rights? Land ownership, 1800-1936
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10. The `southern problem' in an international perspective
11. When do elites surrender power? Farmers and the creation of political parties
12. The Spanish land reform of the 1930s
Conclusion. Was conflict inevitable?

LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY

The course consists of (a) a weekly lecture by the professor, (b) a short summary of a paper prepared by
the student each week for discussion in class; (c) class presentations by an individual, or group of
students, on a specific part of the program; (d) and participation by students in the class and debates.
Students will also be expected to prepare a short individual essay on a relevant topic to the course.
The 6 ECTS credits correspond approximately to:
- 2 credits for assistance
- 1 credit for preparing the weekly summary
- 2 credits for the preparation and presentation of a paper
- 1 credit for the participation in class during the course
The teacher will present the main ideas of each topic in the lecture, both in terms of the underlying
theoretical problems, as well as the historical background. This information, together with obligatory
class readings and individual student essays, will provide the material to conduct debates in the class.
Class presentations by students aim to develop their ability to synthesise complex material and present
it orally to their fellow students. Their ability to answer questions will also be tested.
The weekly essays will show that the student has understood the material to be discussed.

ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

Students will be assessed during the whole course. Marks will be awarded as following:
- 20% to the weeks essay and participation in class
- 20% on an individual essay
- 60% in the final exam. Students will be expected to obtain a minimum grade of 4 to pass the
subject.
The weekly essay will be based on bibliography given in the program at the beginning of the course, and
should be no longer than 600 words (2 pages A4). These will be handed in at the end of the class when
they have been discussed.
The long essay will be based on relevant bibliography for the course, and should be less than 1.000
words.
% end-of-term-examination: 60
% of continuous assessment (assigments, laboratory, practicals?): 40

BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Carrión, Pascual. Los latifundios de España, Ariel., 1975
- Malefakis, Edward. Agrarian reform and the peasant revolution in Spain: origins of the Civil War. , Yale
University Press, 1970
- Robledo, Ricardo. Economistas y reformadores españoles: la cuestión agraria (1760-1935). , MAPA., 1993
- Banerjee, A. V. and E. Duflo The Economic Lives of the Poor, Journal of Economic Perspectives , 2007, 21(1):
141-167
- Scott, James C. Seeing like a State, Yale, New Haven, 1998

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Allen, Douglas W, and Dean Lueck. The Nature of the Farm. Contracts, Risk, and Organization in Agriculture,
MIT Press., 2002
- Bates, Robert H, Toward a Political Economy of Development. A Rational Choice Perspective, California
University Press., 1988.
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- Bernal, Antonio Miguel. Economía e historia de los latifundios, Espasa Calpe., 1988
- Carmona, Juan, and James Simpson. El laberinto de la agricultura española. Instituciones, contractos y
organización entre 1850 y 1936., Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza., 2003.
- Cobo Romero, Francisco. De campesinos a electores, Biblioteca Nueva., 2003
- Díaz del Moral, Juan. Historia de las agitaciones campesinas andaluzas , Alianza, 1973
- Florencio Puntas, Antonio. Empresariado agrícola y cambio económico, 1880-1936, Diputación Provincial de
Sevilla., 1994.
- Hayami, Yujiro, and Vernon Ruttan. Agricultural development: an international perspective, Johns Hopkins
University Press., 1985. .
- Rey, Fernando Paisanos en lucha: exclusión política y violencia en la Segunda República española. , Biblioteca
Nueva., 2008.
- Sheingate, Adam D. The Rise of the Agricultural Welfare State. Institutions and interest group power in the United States, France, and Japan. , Princeton University Press., 2001.
- Simpson, James. Spanish agriculture: the long siesta, 1765-1965. , Cambridge University Press., 1995
- Tilly, Charles. The Politics of Collective Violence, Cambridge University Press., 2003
- Mintz, Jerome The anarchists of Casas Viejas, University of Chicago, 1982