Quantitative economic history in Europe since the second world war : survey, evaluation and prospects

Abstract

It is not an easy task to present a concise, clear, and complete review of European research in the field of quantitative economic history. Indeed, several dficulties arise when one starts to critically review the long tradition of European historiography and its vast literature. First, it is difficult to precisely define what is meant by the concept of quantitative economic history. Second, the time period which is to be reviewed, must be carefully delineated. Indeed, if a very general interpretation is given to the above mentioned concept and a long period of historical research is studied, then the literature fitting such criteria is vast and can hardly be reviewed within the strict scheme of a meaningful synthesis. If, on the contrary, a rather narrow interpretation is used, then the review will only contain a brief list of the very few cliometric studies which were undertaken in Europe. Consequently, it is vitally important to adequately limit the scope of this paper so that the relevant quantitative and economic aspects of European historical research clearly emerge.