GUIDE to Paul A. David, Understanding the Economics of QWERTY: The Necessity of History

In this article David challenges economists to consider the importance of history. Economists usually take the view that past history of products, organizations or institutions is irrelevant, as those can be understood from the purpose or function those serve in the present. (This is often referred to as functional analysis, which is discussed by Simon [pp.29-32].) They would usually argue that things, that do not serve their purpose or function will be eliminated by 'natural selection.' (Granovetter also objects to this Darwinian argument [p.59 and p.72.].) David's claim is that the past matters, because "it is sometimes not possible to uncover the logic (or illogic) of the world around us except by understanding how it got that way."

Consider the following questions while reading the article:

1. What was the original reason that the typing keyboard got its QWERTYUIOP layout ?

2. Once QWERTY was introduced why did it survive?

3. What were the some of the challenges to the keyboard design?

4. What is path-dependence?

Can you think of any other product where you need to know the history to find out why it is the way it is? E.g.: why do you think are steering wheels of cars round? Why do the overwhelming majority of computers use MS-DOS and with it such crazy characters as the '\' and '|' and such stupid commands as chkdsk and edlin?

Can you think of any organization or institution which needs history to explain it ? E.g. why are there 100 members of the Senate? Why are elections on Tuesdays?

Was your 'rational choice' of coming to UCSD was in any way path-dependent?

Can you think of any other instance where important decisions are better understood by previous choices than rational calculus?