2012/05/30 by Barry Eichengreen, BARRY EICHENGREEN
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Analogy #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Depression (economics) #Economic growth #Economics #Epistemology #Financial crisis #Foreign policy #Great Depression #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Italy: Economic History and Contemporary Issues #Law #Macroeconomics #Perception #Political science #Politics #Positive economics #Scholarship #Sociology #Work (physics)
paper · doi:10.1017/s0022050712000034
openalex publication_date 2012/05/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
“The lessons of history” were widely invoked in 2008/09 as analysts and policymakers sought to make sense of the global financial crisis. Specifically, analogies with the early stages of the Great Depression of the 1930s were widely drawn. Building on work in cognitive science and literature on foreign policy making, this article seeks to account for the influence of this particular historical analogy and asks how it shaped both perceptions and the economic policy response. It asks how historical scholarship might be better organized to inform the process of economic policymaking. It concludes with some reflections on how research in economic history will be reshaped by the crisis.