EH237      One Unit
Theories and Evidence in Economic History

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

This course teaches students how to conduct, evaluate and interpret research in economic history. Taking a practical, applied approach, students will design and conduct three research projects drawing heavily upon the archival material available in the LSE Archives and Library. The course also introduces students to critical interpretation and analysis of primary sources and research methodologies. By the end of the course, students will have a good understanding of research design, historical sources and methods, which will leave them well-prepared for their dissertation in their final year. In addition, they will have a non-technical understanding of more complex quantitative methods such as regression so that they can engage critically with current scholarship in economic history.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Students are expected to write one formative essay and complete other shorter formative coursework for the course.

L Jordanova, History in Practice (2000),

CH Feinstein and M Thomas, Making History Count (2002),

P Hudson, History by Numbers (2000), 

S Cunningham, Causal Interference: The Mixtape (2021),

EB Schneider, Collider Bias in Economic History Research, Explorations in Economic History (2020)

Practical test (15%)

Course participation (10%)

Project (25%, 4000 words)

Project (50%, 3000 words)

This course includes the following threshold element(s) linked to the ST Project, failure to submit these elements will result in 5 marks being deducted from the final Project grade for each threshold element:

1. Data File

2. Research Log