EH441 Half Unit
Macroeconomic History
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Jason Lennard
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research) and MSc in Financial History. This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: All Economic History courses are controlled access and capped. Priority will be given to students for whom the course is within their programme regulations.
All course choices submitted before the deadline will be considered. It is advisable that students submit a statement in support of their course choices as these will be used to allocate places where a course is oversubscribed.
Deadline for application: First round offers will be sent on Monday 29 September 2025. Students who submit their course choices after the deadline and students wishing to take an Economic History course as an outside option will be waitlisted initially and informed by Wednesday 1 October 2025 whether they have been successful.
Once an offer has been sent, you have 48 hours to accept it before it times out. Once an offer has timed out, it will be re-allocated to someone on the waitlist. In all cases, it is strongly advised that you have an alternative course choice as a back-up in case you are unable to secure your first choice.
For queries contact: If you have any questions, please contact the MSc Programmes Officer (o.harrison1@lse.ac.uk) A list of all taught master's courses in this Department are listed on LSE's course guide webpages. Guidance on how to apply to individual controlled access courses can also be found on LSE for You.
Requisites
Additional requisites:
A course in undergraduate econometrics
A course in undergraduate macroeconomics
Course content
This course studies the boom and bust of the business cycle in a historical perspective. The first part of the course covers the basics: how to define and measure business cycles, the costs of business cycles, the key business cycle facts, and theory and empirics in macroeconomic history. The second part explores propagation mechanisms, such as sticky prices and wages. The third part focuses on impulses, such as shocks to technology, financial crises, expectations and uncertainty, and monetary and fiscal policy.
The course examines advanced economies from the Industrial Revolution to the present. This interval of modern economic history includes deep recessions, major financial panics, reversals of expectations, and episodes of nominal inertia.
Teaching
20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
Students will be expected to produce 1 presentation and a 2,000 word essay in the WT.
Indicative reading
- De Bromhead, A., Eichengreen, B., and O’Rourke, K. H., ‘Political Extremism in the 1920s and 1930s: Do German Lessons Generalize?’, Journal of Economic History, 73 (2013), pp. 371–406.
- Inklaar, R., De Jong, H., and Gouma, R., ‘Did Technology Shocks Drive the Great Depression? Explaining Cyclical Productivity Movements in U.S. Manufacturing, 1919–1939’, Journal of Economic History, 71 (2011), pp. 827–58.
- Hausman, J. K., ‘Fiscal Policy and Economic Recovery: The Case of the 1936 Veterans’ Bonus’, American Economic Review, 106 (2016), pp. 1100–143.
- Jalil, A., ‘A New History of Banking Panics in the United States, 1825–1929: Construction and Implications’, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 7 (2015), pp. 295–330.
- Jordà, Ò., Schularick, M., and Taylor, A. M., ‘Macrofinancial History and the New Business Cycle Facts’, in M. Eichenbaum and J. A. Parker, eds., NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2016 (Chicago, 2017), pp. 213–63.
- Levy, D. and Young, A. T., ‘The Real Thing: Nominal Price Rigidity of the Nickel Coke, 1886-1959’, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 36 (2004), pp. 765–99.
- Ramey, V. A., ‘Macroeconomic Shocks and Their Propagation’, in J. B. Taylor and H. Uhlig, eds., Handbook of Macroeconomics (Amsterdam, 2016), pp. 71–162.
- Richardson, G. and Troost, W., ‘Monetary Intervention Mitigated Banking Panics during the Great Depression: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from a Federal Reserve District Border, 1929–1933’, Journal of Political Economy, 117 (2009), pp. 1031–73.
- Romer, C. D., ‘Remeasuring Business Cycles’, Journal of Economic History, 54 (1994), pp. 573–609.
- Temin, P. and Wigmore, B. A., ‘The End of One Big Deflation’, Explorations in Economic History, 27 (1990), pp. 483–502.
Assessment
Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period
Key facts
Department: Economic History
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: Unavailable
Average class size 2024/25: Unavailable
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Application of numeracy skills