Word of the Day

: January 8, 2008

cliometrics

noun plural but singular in construction klye-uh-MET-riks

What It Means

: the application of methods developed in other fields (as economics, statistics, and data processing) to the study of history

cliometrics in Context

For his doctoral thesis, Quentin used cliometrics to examine the impact of universal suffrage on economic development.

Did You Know?

"Cliometrics" comes from a combination of "Clio," the name of the Greek Muse of history, and "-metrics," as in "econometrics" ("the application of statistical methods to the study of economic data and problems") or "biometrics" ("the statistical analysis of biological observations and phenomena"). American economists Douglass North and Robert Fogel developed cliometrics, a highly quantitative means for studying the past. In 1993, North and Fogel won the Nobel Prize in Economics for their pioneering work.