The Way We Were Reflections on the Comparative History of.pdfVIP

Comparative Economic Studies, 2011, 53, (489–505) r 2011 ACES. All rights reserved. 0888-7233/11 /ces/ Presidential Address The Way We Were: Reflections on the Comparative History of Comparative Economics PETER MURRELL Department of Economics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. E-mail: murrell@ This paper examines the characteristics of comparative economics during the period 1977–1992, using computational tools to collect data on the character of publications. These data depict the distinctive characteristics of comparative economics, for example, whether it was neoclassical or new-institutional, and the balance between theory and empirics. Complete systems were a centerpiece of comparativists’ research, leading to an early focus on institutions, culture, and law. Consequently, the field chose a distinctive point on the trade-off between using advanced techniques and focusing on topics not amenable to study with those techniques. Possibly, this was why comparativists had a distinctive approach to transition. Comparative Economic Studies (2011) 53, 489–505. doi:10.1057/ces.2011.29 Keywords: comparative economics, intellectual history, culturomics, socialism, institutions, transition JEL Classifications : B20, B40, C80, P00, P50 INTRODUCTION ‘The Way We Were’ is a fitting subject for a Presidential address of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies.1 Having spent my career 1 A revised version of the Presidential address to the 2011 Annual Meetings of the Association of Comparative Economic Studies, which was presented on 8 January 2011. This version incorporates further reflections especially those based on the comments of parti