Shocking Contrasts: Political Responses to Exogenous Supply Shocks

By Ronald L. Rogowski

In the fourteenth century, the Black Death killed as much as two thirds of Europe's population; in the fifteenth, the introduction of moveable-type printing rapidly expanded Europe's supply of human capital; between 1850 and 1914, Russia's population almost tripled; and in World War I, the British blockade starved some 800,000 Germans. Each of these, Shocking Contrasts argues, amounted to an unanticipated shock, positive or negative, to the supply of a crucial factor of production; and elicited one of four main responses: factor substitution; factor movement to a different sector or region; technological innovation; or political action, sometimes extending to coercion at home or conquest abroad. This book examines parsimonious models of factor returns, relative costs, and technological innovation. It offers a framework for understanding the role of supply shocks in major political conflicts and argues that its implications extend far beyond these specific cases to any period of human history.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1316510700
• ISBN13: 9781316510704
• Release Date: August 2023
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 225 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.1"