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The Role of Comparison in the Development of Economic Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Sylvia L. Thrupp
Sylvia L. Thrupp
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

Our conference today on comparative economic history is in some clanger of rushing into the wide-open spaces of ambiguity, for the term is new, and to agree too quickly on its meaning and implications may not even be desirable. In order to avoid engaging in a mere game of definitions, this paper will deal first with three general types of comparison in relation to their bearing on problems of evidence. It will then review some of the chief uses to which these types of comparison have been put in building up our body of knowledge about Western economic history. The survey will close with particular reference to our own preindustrial stages of economic growth, when western Europe was, in our uncomplimentary phrase, an underdeveloped or backward area.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 1957 , pp. 554 - 570
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1957

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References

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