Section 1: (Answer 2 questions)
1. Clark identifies Capitalism in the North in terms of a shift from self-sufficiency towards dependency on outside markets. Goldin & Sokoloff detail how manufacturing expanded in the Northeast primarily with female labor. Analyze both of these perspectives and give opinion regarding the most likely realities underlying development for the North. What do you find? Why is an understanding of "true" development contributors pertinent in today's world? Explain.
2. Steckel (1995) uses anthropometric analysis to better understand well-being during a period of time before GDP was formally recorded. What is anthropometric analysis? What are the strengths and weaknesses of using things such as stature to make inferences about states of wellbeing? Why is it important to look at racial-specific components when considering growth profiles of children and adolescents? What racial distinctions exist in regards to stature? Explain.
3. How are credit markets critical to the story surrounding indentured servants? Explain. How are periods of war and peace related to the prevalence of indentured servitude/ slavery? Explain. Is there any relationship between the availability of credit and times of war/peace? Discuss in the context of both history and the present. What do you find?
Section 2: (Answer 2 questions)
4. Haines, Craig and Weiss are concerned with understanding the "Antebellum Puzzle". What is this puzzle? Why is there concern over understanding and potentially "solving" this puzzle? What was found when performing a height-based regression - examining diverse explanatory variables? In conjunction with the Antebellum Puzzle, women were marrying at later ages and birth rates were falling. What factors led to this change in social behavior? What ramifications can follow a significant change in these variables? Discuss.
5. Benjamin Franklin believed that as long as land was available for cultivation, men would never be poor enough to be involved in manufacturing and have a master. Why was manufacturing seen as inferior to agricultural work? Explain. Has this ideology changed in the minds of people living in the U.S. in 2016? What about for people living elsewhere throughout the world? What conditions need to be in place in order for people to willingly subject themselves to a "master" over the process of "development"? Discuss.
6. Explain the concept of "assimilation". Is it appropriate to use the ability to speak English as a proxy variable for assimilation? Why are we concerned about immigrant assimilation? Are all people and/or groups of people likely to assimilate at similar rates? According to Roberts, what distinctions exist between the Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees flowing into the California labor markets in 1980? What evidence exists to support or reject the hypothesis stating that Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees would assimilate into the U.S. labor markets at a similar rate? Explain. In what way does Roberts argue that a similar assimilation rate between these two groups provides answer to a deeper more quintessential question in social science? Do you agree? Discuss.
7. The Clark article talks about "preserving the old way of life". What does this mean? What natural conflict existed between the preservation of old ways and the accumulation of wealth? Consider the following quote from the article: "The love of wealth seems natural to all mankind and but very few have sufficient of this world to content them". How do you interpret this statement? What consequences exist to society contingent on the "truth" behind this statement? Discuss.