Notizie
Office hours
16 Sept to 16 Dec 2024: Mondays 18-20 in room 542. Please send an email to <jacob.weisdorf@uniroma1.it> the day before to secure a time slot during the office hours. Outside the mentioned period: only by email appointment.
Master theses
For students wishing to write a master thesis in economic or business history: please read the document available for download in the grey box to the right carefully before contacting me. Please note: the earliest graduation session for students wishing to write their thesis with me is the autumn of 2025.
Reference letters
Please note that I only write reference letters for my PhD students and not for master or even master thesis students.
Business History (in English):
The course is interested in why the business landscape looks the way it does today. This includes the history of entrepreneurs, firms, and corporate systems, covering subjects such as innovation, globalisation, and government regulation as well as their influence on businesses and their management. Students will be familiarised with the emergence of factory production; why certain firms grew large (in some cases ultra large) and others did not; why models alternative to mass production existed and survived; and why people in the developed part of the world are as rich as they are today.
The lectures took place in the autumn semester in Aula 8B on Thursdays 16-18 and Fridays 14-16 starting on 26 Sept and ending on 20 Dec 2024 at the latest. The course website can be accessed here. Please note that an @uniroma1.it email address is needed in order to access the website. Practical questions, e.g. how to sign up for the exam on Infostud, etc, as well as any technical problems encountered by students must be directed to the student administration.
Important note about the grading system: the grade is a combination of the score of an oral or written examination (for up to 20 points) and an essay (for up to 10 points). The essay must be sent via email as a PDF to jacob.weisdorf@uniroma1.it for approval no later than one week before the official exam date. The essay must contain 5,000 words (excluding the reference list). The topic of the essay (chosen by the student) alongside the two main research articles that form the basis of the essay must be about business history and must be approved by me in advance.
Economic History (in English):
The course introduces students to economic history serving as a perfect compliment for those interested in development economics. The course takes students from the pre-industrial era via the first, second, and third industrial revolutions up to the present day. The course considers when, why, and how some countries grew rich while others remained poor; how this divergence happened; what barriers to economic development might be; and what the prospects of future economic growth are.
The lectures took place in the autumn semester on Mondays 16-18, Tuesdays 12-14, and Wednesdays 16-18 in Aula Fanfani starting on 23 Sept and ending on 18 Dec 2024 at the latest. The course website can be accessed here. Please note that an @uniroma1.it email address is needed in order to access the website. Practical questions, e.g. how to sign up for the exam on Infostud, etc, as well as any technical problems encountered by students must be directed to the student administration.
Important note about the grading system: the grade is a combination of the score of an oral or written examination (for up to 20 points) and an essay (for up to 10 points). The essay must be sent via email as a PDF to jacob.weisdorf@uniroma1.it for approval no later than one week before the official exam date. The essay must contain 5,000 words (+/- five percent) not including the reference list. The topic of the essay (chosen by the student) alongside the two main research articles that form the basis of the essay must be about economic history and must be approved by me in advance.