HISTORIA ECONÓMICA Y TEORÍA ECONÓMICA: ENCUENTROS Y DESENCUENTROS

Abstract

The paper analyzes the increasing potential for interaction between economic history and economic theory, stemming from the growing concern of economic theory with dynamic problems. This concern is far from new, but in recent years it has become more significant, emphasizing themes like multiple equilibria, path-dependency increasing returns and learning, both at the individual and institutional levels. Thus, the world that emerges from economic models resembles now more closely the world explored and discussed by economic historians. At the same time, economic historians have improved a lot their ability to use economic theory and the analytic tools of economics. This opens new space for more synergy between two different traditions that in the past followed divergent paths.