TY - JOUR
T1 - "Big data" in economic history
AU - Gutmann, Myron P.
AU - Merchant, Emily Klancher
AU - Roberts, Evan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Economic History Association. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/3/1
Y1 - 2018/3/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.1017/S0022050718000177
DO - 10.1017/S0022050718000177
M3 - Article
C2 - 29713093
AN - SCOPUS:85045004901
SN - 0022-0507
VL - 78
SP - 268
EP - 299
JO - Journal of Economic History
JF - Journal of Economic History
IS - 1
ER -