Creating and Regulating Markets

The evolution, formation and construction of markets is a core field of study in business and economic history and an issue that needs to be understood in order to understand the development of modern market economies and industrial transformation. Markets are a result of economic actors’ conscious and unconscious activities, strategies and adaptations to the institutional and economic environment. Furthermore, the role of the state in modern capitalism is on the agenda both in public debate and in scholarship. The turmoil after the financial crises 2007 in several western democracies shows that there is a continuous need to discuss business-government relations and to critically assess how the political process hinder and/or foster economic development. The goal of the course is to provide a broad overview of core themes concerning evolution of markets, market regulation and government/business relations as they are addressed in economic and business history, but also to some extent in neighboring disciplines.