The impact of cliometrics on economics and history

Abstract

Cliometrics has transformed economic history from a primarily narrative to a mathematical approach, causing much apprehension and debate about the proper balance between economics and history. The culmination of this transformation occurred in 1993 when Clio pioneers Robert Fogel and Douglass North were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science. Cliometrics has walked a fine line between being too narrowly "economic," whence it would only measure phenomenon that it cannot explain, and too historical, at which point it would cease to appeal to the economics profession. By merging economic history with modern techniques, cliometricians have not ended economic history, but elevated it.