This is an award under the Research Planning Grant program for women scientists and engineers. It is a project to study the role of the domestic economy in economic development in fifteenth-century Tuscany, Italy. Theories of development raise the question whether family-based agricultural production can support economic growth, and this study examines the hypothesis that a shift to sharecropping (agricultural production based on the domestic economy) was responsible for subsequent economic decline in Tuscany. Only historical research can allow us to see the long-term consequences of major socio-economic decisions, and many areas of the developing world today face choices like those faced earlier by Tuscany. %%% In addition to the scientific gains to be achieved by the research, this award will materially assist a promising ymung researcher to prepare for a larger project, thereby contributing to the strengthening of the national resource of women scientists and engineers.
