Economic History of Portugal (2 º Sem 2016/2017)

Dear Students 

Thank you for choosing this course in economic history of Portugal.

We intend to introduce you to  Portugal's history and to the place of this country within the European Union. Economic growth and divergent paths to modernization is the main issue in this course. History matters to explain economic performance and development, so we take Portugal as an illustrative case study. Portugal got a leading role in the world economy in the 16th century and until late in the 18th century the country was not falling behind the Northwestern economies, such as Britain of the Netherlands. Thus, the 19 ^th century appears as a critical moment of divergence, while the 20 ^th century emerges as a period full of opportunities for recovery. 

During the course we will grasp these last two centuries, but we will not overlook the fact that some severe constraints revealed in the process of structural change that attends modern economic growth may well date back to medieval times!

Please take a look to a concise information on the course in the document entitled "program". Please note we can adopt an assessment strictly based on written essays that discuss seminal articles or working papers produced in research programs developed by research units of the ISEG (GHES)

See you soon.

Leonor Freire Costa