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Regarding Ross Emmett's response to Robert Leeson on how an economic 
historian can uniquely contribute to contemporary policy issues, ultimately 
policy makers will evaluate the potential contributions of social 
scientists based on whether they can help policy makers make useful and 
meaningful decisions.  While Ross outlines several issues that one might 
take into consideration in the process of formulating policy, there 
are surely other valuable functions in addition to the ones he mentions 
that economic history can give to current policy formulation. 
 
First, I would stress the importance of understanding long-run dynamic 
processes in developing viable policy responses to contemporary problems. 
Robert Fogel stressed this in his 1993 Nobel Address, where he contended 
that "failure to take account of history...has often led to a 
misunderstanding of current economic problems by investigators who have 
not realized that their generalization rested upon transient circumstances. 
Nowhere is the need to recognize the role of long-run dynamics more relevant 
than in such pressing current issues as medical care, pension policies, and 
development policies."  In my own policy-related work, I have found that an 
exploration into the historical factors shaping current conditions is 
important to understanding the policy context and the subjective, transient 
nature of defining property rights. 
 
I also notice an interesting melding of history and economic theory in the 
emerging literature on long-run processes, path dependence, technology 
lock-ins and related issues being examined by analysts such as Paul David 
and Brian Aurther.  This literature has generated some interesting 
implications for policy and debates over the role of government. 
 
Regards. 
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  T.S. Jayne 
  Associate Professor 
  Department of Agricultural Economics 
  401c Agriculture Hall, East Lansing, MI  48824-1039 
  Tel:  (517) 355-0131    Fax:  (517) 432-1800 
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