Big Data in Economic History

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; University of California System; University of California Davis; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050718000177
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 268-299
• 关键词: us great-plains; land-use changes; UNITED-STATES; social-mobility; socioeconomic-status; fertility; migration; mortality; HEALTH; north

摘要

Big data is an exciting prospect for the field of economic history, which has long depended on the acquisition, keying, and cleaning of scarce numerical information about the past. This article examines two areas in which economic historians are already using big data - population and environment - discussing ways in which increased frequency of observation, denser samples, and smaller geographic units allow us to analyze the past with greater precision and often to track individuals, places, and phenomena across time. We also explore promising new sources of big data: organically created economic data, high resolution images, and textual corpora.