MSc Political Economy of Late Development

Drawing in the research expertise and practical experience of the Department of Economic History and the Department of International Development, this joint programme provides you with a unique opportunity to combine the study of the processes, policy and practice of contemporary development with the study of long-run global processes of growth and divergence.

How societies overcome poverty to create healthy, wealthy and sustainable societies - and why some persistently fail to achieve this - are common questions in Development Studies and Economic History. By combining courses from both fields, you'll pursue a high quality programme that combines the in-depth analysis of longer-run historical patterns of growth, explorations of concrete development problems - and policy responses to them, and 'regional' courses that draw on theory and empirical evidence to appraise long and short-run development processes and outcomes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The programme brings together the analysis of long-run growth with modern approaches to development policy and practice. The full-unit core course in Development introduces you to the theories and historical experience of development, as well as cutting-edge policy debates. The core couse in Economic History gives you a rigorous exposure to core issues involved in analysing long-run historical change. You'll choose from a wide range of elective courses in both departments, allowing you to compile a programme according to your interests and goals, and will write a dissertation on an approved topic of your choice.

The programme brings together students from diverse academic and professional backgrounds. It's relevant for students planning a career in development work, including international and national agencies and NGOs, as well as international business. The programme also provides a good foundation for doctoral level social science research and careers in the media.

The following is a list of general Economic History books that you might want to take a look at before you arrive at LSE. Please note, these books are listed as a general introduction to Economic History and may not appear on the reading lists of the courses that you actually take - they are presented as a starting point.

• Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. (2012), Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, London: Profile
• Allen, R.C. (2009), The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Austin, Gareth M. Markets, Slaves and States in West African History, c.1450 to the present (Cambridge: CUP 2013)
• Austin, Gareth M. & Kaoru Sugihara (eds.) Labour-intensive industrialisation in Global History (London: Routledge 2013)
• Baten, Joerg (2016), A History of the Global Economy. Cambridge
• Broadberry, S. and O’Rourke, K. (eds.) (2010), The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Crafts, N.F.R. and Fearon, P. (2013), The Great Depression of the 1930s: Lessons for Today, Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Darwin, J. (2007), After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000, London: Allen Lane
• Engerman, Stanley L. & Kenneth L. Sokoloff Economic Development in the Americas since 1500: endowments and institutions (Cambridge: CUP/NBER 2012)
• Findlay, R. and O’Rourke, K. (2009), Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium (Princeton Economic History of the Western World), Princeton: Princeton University Press
• Floud, Roderick, Fogel, Robert, Harris, Bernard, and Hong, Sok Chul (2011), The Changing Body: health, nutrition, and human development in the western world since 1700. Cambridge
• Greif, A. (2006) Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy: Lessons from Medieval Trade (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Hatcher, J. and Bailey, M (2001), Modelling the Middle Ages: The History and Theory of England’s Economic Development, Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Herschman, Albert O. (2013), The Passions and the Interests: political arguments for capitalism before its triumph. Princeton
• King, Mervyn (2016), The End of Alchemy: money, banking and the future. Little, Brown
• Livi-Bacci, Massimo (2012), A Concise History of Worl Population. Wiley Blackwell
• Mackenzie, D (2006), An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press
• Morgan, Mary S. (2012), The World in the Model: How Economists Work and Think, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• North, D.C., Wallis, J.J. and Weingast, B. (2009), Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History, Cambridge; Cambridge University Press
• Parthasarathi, P. (2011), Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Divergence, 1600-1850, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Pomeranz, K. (2000), The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Princeton: Princeton University Press
• Reinhart, C.M. and Rogoff, K.S. (2009), This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, Princeton: Princeton University Press
• Rosenthal, J-L and Wong, R. Bin (2011), Before and Beyond Divergence: The Politics of Economic Change in China and Europe, Harvard University Press
• Roy, T. (2012), India in the World Economy: From Antiquity to the Present (New Approaches to Asian History), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Von Glahn, Richard (2016), The Economic History of China from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century (CUP)
• Yun-Casalilla, B. and O’Brien, P. (2011), The Rise of Fiscal States: A Global History, 1500-1914, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.