Content and objectives
The aim of this course is to introduce students to debates about the nature of wellbeing and changes in the standard of living of European populations over the last three hundred years. By the end of the course, students should have:

• An understanding of some of the main approaches to the measurement of wellbeing and their application to the study of changes in living standards in Europe since circa 1700
• An understanding of the causes of changes in the standard of living, including the impact of different social policies
• An understanding of the evolution of the ‘mixed economy of welfare’ in Europe over the last three hundred years
• An understanding of the historical background to current debates over the governance of welfare policy

Content

The course is designed to address the following issues:

• The conceptualisation and measurement of ‘wellbeing’ and the ‘standard of living’.

• Changes in the standard of living in Europe over the last three centuries.

• The impact of economic and social change on changing living standards.

• The role played by institutions in the history of economic growth

• The evolution of the ‘mixed economy of welfare’ in European societies since circa 1700.

• Governance and welfare

• The implications of changes in the standard of living for future developments in social policy

Literature

• Fogel, R., Floud, R., Harris, B. and Hong, S.C. (in preparation), Nutrition, Health and Human development in the Western World since 1700, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

• Harris, B. (1994), ‘Health, height and history: an overview of recent developments in anthropometric history’, Social History of Medicine, 7 (2), 297-320

• Harris, B. (2004), The origins of the British welfare state: social welfare in England and Wales 1800-1945, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

• Harris, B. and Bridgen, P. (2007), ‘Introduction: the “mixed economy of welfare” and the historiography of welfare provision’, in B. Harris and P. Bridgen, eds., Historical Perspectives on Charity and Mutual Aid: European and American Experiences since 1800, New York & London: Routledge, 1-18.

• North, D. (1994), ‘Economic performance through time’, American Economic Review, 84 (3), 359-68
  Nussbaum, M. (2003), ‘Capabilities as fundamental entitlements: Sen and social justice’, Feminist Economics, 9 (2-3), 33-59

• Peters, B.G. (2003), ‘Governance and the welfare state’, in N. Ellison and C. Pierson, eds., Developments in British social policy 2, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 41-55.

• Rhodes, R. (1996), ‘The new governance: governing without government’, Political Studies, 44, 652-67

• Rose-Ackerman, S. (2004), ‘Governance and corruption’, in B. Lomborg, ed., Global crises, global solutions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 301-62

• Stoker, G. (1998), ‘Governance as theory: five propositions’, International Social Science Journal, 50 (155), 17-28

• Sen, A. (1987), The standard of living, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Steckel, R. (1995), ‘Stature and the standard of living’, Journal of Economic Literature, 33, 1903-40