When approaching the economic history, one should apply high-powered statistical methods in order to analyze quantitative economic data. The experts of the field recommend treating all economic elements and processes as both complex and unique historical events. Further our economic history essay guide will give you better idea of the process.
Meet the North’s Approach
Douglas C. North, one of the pioneers of the new economic history, offers his own method to approach economic history. He points out the relationship economic history posts between the history and the theory. For North, the Nobel Prize winner, history is the very source of the so-called ‘empirical evidence’ that is a perfect statistical data. The latter is the issue against which the economic history is being usually tested. In other words, once you make a claim to validity of a certain theorem, keep in mind that it will always remain defensible and tentative.
North also claims it’s impossible to both analyze and explain the issues related to the economic history without giving initial hypotheses, as well as testing them on the basis of the available evidence. As for the initial hypotheses, they usually come from the economic theory body that has developed in the course of the past two hundred years and is being endlessly tested and refined through empirical inquiry. The empirical evidence and precise measurement used to test the theory are provided by the statistics.
Revise Regularly
At the same time, it also means that one should continually revise economic history since the theory that is applied to identify the relations between historical events can be simply falsified at some point by a sudden evidence appearing in the ongoing historical process. To cut it, what the modern economic historians take as the close ‘relationship between the theory and measurement’ actually is the fierce circle that simply traps up every attempt to somehow invoke positivist precepts in the history interpretation. For in case the theory is being used in order to interpret any of the events that took place in the past can be canceled any time by the future events, then it’s not really clear whether the theory is the explained or the explainable when it comes to the historical research.
Evaluate the Existing Viewpoints
Evaluation is known as an integral part of the economic history paper writing. There’s a well-known joke that once you put ten economists in one room, you will 100% receive eleven different answers. You may wonder why. The point is that the nature of economics is that usually there’s no answer that can be considered as ‘correct.’ It’s highly important that we always take into consideration the other viewpoints, as well as debate over different most probable outcomes. That’s what is called the evaluation.
When the economic history project is almost done, make sure to ask yourself – how does my paper answer the question? If necessary, think about a one-sentence summarization that will bring a direct answer to your question. There is no need to wait till the last paragraph of the paper is done to realize you have chosen the wrong question to investigate if you did. Hopefully our economic history essay guide will help you prevent this.