David Mitch | University of Maryland Baltimore County (original) (raw)
Papers by David Mitch
School Acts and the Rise of Mass Schooling, 2019
The Education Act of 1870 was only one of several factors contributing to the onset of universal ... more The Education Act of 1870 was only one of several factors contributing to the onset of universal schooling and literacy in England. Much of the growth of state involvement in the provision of elementary schooling occurred otherwise than through explicit Parliamentary Acts. Nevertheless, there are grounds for identifying the passage by Parliament of the 1870 Education Act as a landmark event. After considering interest-group and nation-building interpretations of this Act, this chapter argues that it is most appropriately seen as exhibiting the agency of politicians as well as the importance of their interaction with local civil societies in implementing the complexities of establishing universal access to publicly funded and supervised elementary schools.
The Rise of Popular Literacy in Victorian England, 1992
Palgrave Studies in Economic History, 2019
Palgrave Studies in Economic History is designed to illuminate and enrich our understanding of ec... more Palgrave Studies in Economic History is designed to illuminate and enrich our understanding of economies and economic phenomena of the past. The series covers a vast range of topics including financial history, labour history, development economics, commercialisation, urbanisation, industrialisation, modernisation, globalisation, and changes in world economic orders.
What follows are some preliminary results based on linking marriage register records for individu... more What follows are some preliminary results based on linking marriage register records for individual grooms married during the period 1867 to 1873 back to records for the same individuals in the 1851 census. The starting point for the exercise was a data set of
George Stigler is commonly seen as one of the central figures in the Chicago School of Economics.... more George Stigler is commonly seen as one of the central figures in the Chicago School of Economics. However, he did not actually take a faculty position at the University of Chicago until the age of 47. This essay will provide a narrative account of George Stigler’s various career transitions from graduate school through his “retirement.” This narrative structure will be employed to bring out what archival material implies about a number of general themes regarding Stigler’s career. Particular attention will be devoted to the 1946 episode in which Chicago failed to make him an offer and the 1957–1958 episode in which W. Allen Wallis successfully induced him to take charge of the Walgreen Foundation and Walgreen Professorship. A first theme considered concerns the role of contingency in Stigler’s academic appointments. A second theme concerns the intellectual diversity of the academic milieus in which Stigler operated, which runs counter to the conventional view of a monolithic Chicago...
In 1950, Friedrich Hayek abandoned the title of University of London Tooke Professor of Economics... more In 1950, Friedrich Hayek abandoned the title of University of London Tooke Professor of Economics and Statistics, to become the Professor of Social and Moral Science at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago (with an intervening Visiting Professorship at the University of Arkansas). The new title is commonly seen as a consolation prize after his failure to obtain a position in the Economics Department at the University of Chicago or, indeed, any other prestigious American universities. In fact, Hayek was recruited by the Committee on Social Thought: he viewed his position as ‘a scholar’s dream’ (Mitch 2010, 2011). The one prior attempt to consider Hayek by the Department of Economics had been in early 1946 (before Milton Friedman’s arrival), was unknown to Hayek and was not taken even moderately seriously by most members of the Chicago Department.
Did high stakes testing policies result in divergence or convergence in educational performance a... more Did high stakes testing policies result in divergence or convergence in educational performance and financing across counties in Victorian England?
The Economic History Review, 1996
ABSTRACT
Paedagogica Historica
Abstract Historians of the rise of popular education have often emphasised the role of national g... more Abstract Historians of the rise of popular education have often emphasised the role of national governments as sources of funding. However, for the case of England work by W.K. Jordan among others with probate records suggests that by the English Civil War substantial philanthropic funding was available for education. The presence of this philanthropy suggests a blurring of the line between private and public and the presence of both top-down and bottom-up forces at work. Moreover, parliamentary inquiries into educational charities in the early and mid-nineteenth century indicate their persistence as a source of funding for popular elementary schools. Counter to literature emphasising the importance of landed elites, both early modern and nineteenth-century evidence indicate the importance of other groups including merchants and clergy as sources of educational philanthropy. The formation of a national, government-funded system of elementary schooling in England during the last two-thirds of the nineteenth century incorporated elements of funding deriving from philanthropic sources with origins in earlier times. While there are parallels with other European countries, the extent of English educational philanthropy may be distinctive.
Historical accounts of the determinants of funding for education have emphasized the role of redi... more Historical accounts of the determinants of funding for education have emphasized the role of redistributive motives. This has featured prominent ly i the literature based on the Engerman Sokoloff thesis on how resource endowments affect i ncome and wealth inequality which in turn affects support for public education. A number of s tudies both internationally and based on regional analysis within countries have found that rising inequality is associated with declining support for public education. However, leaders of p ublic education movements have generally emphasized the public good or external benefits of popular education rather than its redistributive dimensions. And studies for the midn neteenth century United States have found public externality as well as redistributive motive s present as explanatory factors behind regional variation in support for public education (Beadie 2 010; Stoddard 2009, 2011).
Palgrave Studies in Economic History, 2019
Iran is a striking example of a country experiencing a shift from widespread illiteracy to the on... more Iran is a striking example of a country experiencing a shift from widespread illiteracy to the onset of universal literacy in just a few decades. What is especially remarkable about the Iranian case is the persistent drive to universal female literacy, even in rural areas, during the regime change from a secularizing autocracy to an Islamic theocracy. The basic resolution of this apparent paradox is that the Islamic Revolution was perceived by its leaders as a true revolution. It was conceived not as a return to a traditional society but as a move to purify and establish Islamic morality to counteract secular, westernizing forces in Iranian society: Education was a policy lever to achieve such goals.
Economics of Education Review, 1995
By David Mitch; Ancient literacy: By. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. pp. xv + 383... more By David Mitch; Ancient literacy: By. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. pp. xv + 383. $15.95 (paper).
Robert Fogel was one of the earliest and most forceful advocates for the use of quantitative meth... more Robert Fogel was one of the earliest and most forceful advocates for the use of quantitative methods and economic theory in the study of economic history and long-term economic change. He demonstrated through his work on the economic impact of the railroads and the economic history of US slavery that the cliometric approach had the potential to challenge and overturn long-standing views based on narrative approaches to economic history. The volume he edited with Stanley Engerman, The Reinterpretation of American Economic History, published in 1971 provided an early manifestation to economists and historians alike of the wide range of applications the cliometric approach could offer to various fields of economic history. Throughout his career, Fogel advocated for the cliometric approach to history more generally, not just to economic history.
Palgrave Studies in Economic History
This chapter outlines the relationship between globalization and education by presenting several ... more This chapter outlines the relationship between globalization and education by presenting several potential factors linking the two aspects. First, existing evidence on the evolution of national school systems is presented. Secondly, an interpretative framework to connect global socioeconomic and political forces with local and national educational developments is discussed, based on migrations, trade, evolving institutions, colonialism and the activity of missions. Next, this framework is used to present the individual chapters of the book, with a broad geographical scope including countries in the Southern and Northern European periphery, North America and Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The last section sums up the main results and briefly presents remaining gaps that future research should fill.
Social Science History
Since the emergence of distinctive social science disciplines in American universities in the lat... more Since the emergence of distinctive social science disciplines in American universities in the late nineteenth century, there have been recurring tensions over whether history should be practiced within or pursued separately from particular social science disciplines. This study considers this issue for the case of economic history in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. Economic history was active as an inter-disciplinary field throughout the twentieth century, and it had a substantial presence throughout the twentieth century at Chicago, in one of the world’s leading economics departments. This study focuses on how economic historians and economists at Chicago have conceived of the relationship between economic history and economics over the past century. It argues that a key set of tensions has been, on the one hand, developing a conception of the economy that is subject to historical forces yet, on the other hand, allowing adequate scope for employing the too...
Humanism Challenges Materialism in Economics and Economic History, 2017
Most of the existing research on economic history relies either solely or ultimately on calculati... more Most of the existing research on economic history relies either solely or ultimately on calculations of material interest to explain the major events of the modern world. However, care must be taken not to rely too heavily on materialism, with its associated confidence in perfectly rational actors that simply do not exist. What is needed for a more cogent understanding of the long history of capitalist growth is a more realistic, human-centered approach that can take account of the role of nonmaterial values and beliefs, an approach convincingly articulated by Deirdre McCloskey in her landmark trilogy of books on the moral and ethical basis of modern economic life. With Humanism Challenges Materialism in Economics and Economic History, Roderick Floud, Santhi Hejeebu, and David Mitch have brought together a distinguished group of scholars in economics, economic history, political science, philosophy, gender studies, and communications who synthesize and build on McCloskey’s work. The essays in this volume illustrate the ways in which the humanistic approach to economics that McCloskey pioneered can open up new vistas for the study of economic history and cultivate rich synergies with a wide range of disciplines. The contributors show how values and beliefs become embedded in the language of economics and shape economic outcomes. Chapters on methodology are accompanied by case studies discussing particular episodes in economic history.
School Acts and the Rise of Mass Schooling, 2019
The Education Act of 1870 was only one of several factors contributing to the onset of universal ... more The Education Act of 1870 was only one of several factors contributing to the onset of universal schooling and literacy in England. Much of the growth of state involvement in the provision of elementary schooling occurred otherwise than through explicit Parliamentary Acts. Nevertheless, there are grounds for identifying the passage by Parliament of the 1870 Education Act as a landmark event. After considering interest-group and nation-building interpretations of this Act, this chapter argues that it is most appropriately seen as exhibiting the agency of politicians as well as the importance of their interaction with local civil societies in implementing the complexities of establishing universal access to publicly funded and supervised elementary schools.
The Rise of Popular Literacy in Victorian England, 1992
Palgrave Studies in Economic History, 2019
Palgrave Studies in Economic History is designed to illuminate and enrich our understanding of ec... more Palgrave Studies in Economic History is designed to illuminate and enrich our understanding of economies and economic phenomena of the past. The series covers a vast range of topics including financial history, labour history, development economics, commercialisation, urbanisation, industrialisation, modernisation, globalisation, and changes in world economic orders.
What follows are some preliminary results based on linking marriage register records for individu... more What follows are some preliminary results based on linking marriage register records for individual grooms married during the period 1867 to 1873 back to records for the same individuals in the 1851 census. The starting point for the exercise was a data set of
George Stigler is commonly seen as one of the central figures in the Chicago School of Economics.... more George Stigler is commonly seen as one of the central figures in the Chicago School of Economics. However, he did not actually take a faculty position at the University of Chicago until the age of 47. This essay will provide a narrative account of George Stigler’s various career transitions from graduate school through his “retirement.” This narrative structure will be employed to bring out what archival material implies about a number of general themes regarding Stigler’s career. Particular attention will be devoted to the 1946 episode in which Chicago failed to make him an offer and the 1957–1958 episode in which W. Allen Wallis successfully induced him to take charge of the Walgreen Foundation and Walgreen Professorship. A first theme considered concerns the role of contingency in Stigler’s academic appointments. A second theme concerns the intellectual diversity of the academic milieus in which Stigler operated, which runs counter to the conventional view of a monolithic Chicago...
In 1950, Friedrich Hayek abandoned the title of University of London Tooke Professor of Economics... more In 1950, Friedrich Hayek abandoned the title of University of London Tooke Professor of Economics and Statistics, to become the Professor of Social and Moral Science at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago (with an intervening Visiting Professorship at the University of Arkansas). The new title is commonly seen as a consolation prize after his failure to obtain a position in the Economics Department at the University of Chicago or, indeed, any other prestigious American universities. In fact, Hayek was recruited by the Committee on Social Thought: he viewed his position as ‘a scholar’s dream’ (Mitch 2010, 2011). The one prior attempt to consider Hayek by the Department of Economics had been in early 1946 (before Milton Friedman’s arrival), was unknown to Hayek and was not taken even moderately seriously by most members of the Chicago Department.
Did high stakes testing policies result in divergence or convergence in educational performance a... more Did high stakes testing policies result in divergence or convergence in educational performance and financing across counties in Victorian England?
The Economic History Review, 1996
ABSTRACT
Paedagogica Historica
Abstract Historians of the rise of popular education have often emphasised the role of national g... more Abstract Historians of the rise of popular education have often emphasised the role of national governments as sources of funding. However, for the case of England work by W.K. Jordan among others with probate records suggests that by the English Civil War substantial philanthropic funding was available for education. The presence of this philanthropy suggests a blurring of the line between private and public and the presence of both top-down and bottom-up forces at work. Moreover, parliamentary inquiries into educational charities in the early and mid-nineteenth century indicate their persistence as a source of funding for popular elementary schools. Counter to literature emphasising the importance of landed elites, both early modern and nineteenth-century evidence indicate the importance of other groups including merchants and clergy as sources of educational philanthropy. The formation of a national, government-funded system of elementary schooling in England during the last two-thirds of the nineteenth century incorporated elements of funding deriving from philanthropic sources with origins in earlier times. While there are parallels with other European countries, the extent of English educational philanthropy may be distinctive.
Historical accounts of the determinants of funding for education have emphasized the role of redi... more Historical accounts of the determinants of funding for education have emphasized the role of redistributive motives. This has featured prominent ly i the literature based on the Engerman Sokoloff thesis on how resource endowments affect i ncome and wealth inequality which in turn affects support for public education. A number of s tudies both internationally and based on regional analysis within countries have found that rising inequality is associated with declining support for public education. However, leaders of p ublic education movements have generally emphasized the public good or external benefits of popular education rather than its redistributive dimensions. And studies for the midn neteenth century United States have found public externality as well as redistributive motive s present as explanatory factors behind regional variation in support for public education (Beadie 2 010; Stoddard 2009, 2011).
Palgrave Studies in Economic History, 2019
Iran is a striking example of a country experiencing a shift from widespread illiteracy to the on... more Iran is a striking example of a country experiencing a shift from widespread illiteracy to the onset of universal literacy in just a few decades. What is especially remarkable about the Iranian case is the persistent drive to universal female literacy, even in rural areas, during the regime change from a secularizing autocracy to an Islamic theocracy. The basic resolution of this apparent paradox is that the Islamic Revolution was perceived by its leaders as a true revolution. It was conceived not as a return to a traditional society but as a move to purify and establish Islamic morality to counteract secular, westernizing forces in Iranian society: Education was a policy lever to achieve such goals.
Economics of Education Review, 1995
By David Mitch; Ancient literacy: By. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. pp. xv + 383... more By David Mitch; Ancient literacy: By. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. pp. xv + 383. $15.95 (paper).
Robert Fogel was one of the earliest and most forceful advocates for the use of quantitative meth... more Robert Fogel was one of the earliest and most forceful advocates for the use of quantitative methods and economic theory in the study of economic history and long-term economic change. He demonstrated through his work on the economic impact of the railroads and the economic history of US slavery that the cliometric approach had the potential to challenge and overturn long-standing views based on narrative approaches to economic history. The volume he edited with Stanley Engerman, The Reinterpretation of American Economic History, published in 1971 provided an early manifestation to economists and historians alike of the wide range of applications the cliometric approach could offer to various fields of economic history. Throughout his career, Fogel advocated for the cliometric approach to history more generally, not just to economic history.
Palgrave Studies in Economic History
This chapter outlines the relationship between globalization and education by presenting several ... more This chapter outlines the relationship between globalization and education by presenting several potential factors linking the two aspects. First, existing evidence on the evolution of national school systems is presented. Secondly, an interpretative framework to connect global socioeconomic and political forces with local and national educational developments is discussed, based on migrations, trade, evolving institutions, colonialism and the activity of missions. Next, this framework is used to present the individual chapters of the book, with a broad geographical scope including countries in the Southern and Northern European periphery, North America and Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The last section sums up the main results and briefly presents remaining gaps that future research should fill.
Social Science History
Since the emergence of distinctive social science disciplines in American universities in the lat... more Since the emergence of distinctive social science disciplines in American universities in the late nineteenth century, there have been recurring tensions over whether history should be practiced within or pursued separately from particular social science disciplines. This study considers this issue for the case of economic history in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. Economic history was active as an inter-disciplinary field throughout the twentieth century, and it had a substantial presence throughout the twentieth century at Chicago, in one of the world’s leading economics departments. This study focuses on how economic historians and economists at Chicago have conceived of the relationship between economic history and economics over the past century. It argues that a key set of tensions has been, on the one hand, developing a conception of the economy that is subject to historical forces yet, on the other hand, allowing adequate scope for employing the too...
Humanism Challenges Materialism in Economics and Economic History, 2017
Most of the existing research on economic history relies either solely or ultimately on calculati... more Most of the existing research on economic history relies either solely or ultimately on calculations of material interest to explain the major events of the modern world. However, care must be taken not to rely too heavily on materialism, with its associated confidence in perfectly rational actors that simply do not exist. What is needed for a more cogent understanding of the long history of capitalist growth is a more realistic, human-centered approach that can take account of the role of nonmaterial values and beliefs, an approach convincingly articulated by Deirdre McCloskey in her landmark trilogy of books on the moral and ethical basis of modern economic life. With Humanism Challenges Materialism in Economics and Economic History, Roderick Floud, Santhi Hejeebu, and David Mitch have brought together a distinguished group of scholars in economics, economic history, political science, philosophy, gender studies, and communications who synthesize and build on McCloskey’s work. The essays in this volume illustrate the ways in which the humanistic approach to economics that McCloskey pioneered can open up new vistas for the study of economic history and cultivate rich synergies with a wide range of disciplines. The contributors show how values and beliefs become embedded in the language of economics and shape economic outcomes. Chapters on methodology are accompanied by case studies discussing particular episodes in economic history.