UC San Diego US Economic History Article Questions

I need help with a Economics question. All explanations and answers will be used to help me learn.

Read  the  article and  answer  the  following questions.

1. What is the general question that the article is trying to answer? That is, what is the fact or pattern that the article is trying to explain? Keep your answer to 1-2 sentences.

2. What  is  the  authors’  specific  hypothesis?  That  is,  what  are  their  proposed  explanations  for  the  observed fact or pattern? Keep your answer to 1-2 sentences.

3.What is the main contribution of the paper? That is, how does it advance and improve on previous literature?

4.Look at Table 1 (page 30) in the paper.  How does the evidence presented in this table relate to the authors’ specific hypothesis? Discuss your reasoning.

5.Can  the  evidence  be  explained  in  another  way?  That  is,  is  the  evidence  consistent  with  another  hypothesis  that  the  author  may  or  may  not  have  considered.  Propose  one  alternative  explanation  for the patterns that they talk about.