Previously announced here. This conference will take place at the University of Manchester on June 16, 2023 ..read more

Conference to be held at the University of Manchester Part of the CEPR Economic History programme. This event is jointly organised by the Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development (Arthur Lewis Lab Conference #3), The Productivity Institute, and The Manchester School at the University of Manchester. The conference will take place at the Manchester Alliance Business School. Date: June 16, 2023 Note: This conference is expected to take place offline only. Conference title: Productivity Revolutions: Past and Future Keynote speakers: Michela Giorcelli (UCLA) and Jo ..read more

The Simon and Hallsworth fellowships are now open for application: ·       Hallsworth Research Fellowship ·       Hallsworth Research Fellowship in Chinese Political Economy ·       Hallsworth Research Fellowship with focus on External Engagement and Impact ·       Simon Research Fellowship All of these are suitable for economic historians. Join our growing group at the Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development! The closing date is 16th March. Be s ..read more

As readers of this blog know, I take every year my economic history students to the Quarry Bank Mill near Manchester: a large and important cotton factory of the First Industrial Revolution. But of course, the Manchester region also had other clusters, such as pottery cluster in Stoke-on-Trent (affectionately known as “The Potteries”), and a silk cluster in the region of Macclesfield (where a couple of modern silk-related factories in fact still operate today). So, in a recent weekend, I visited the Silk Museum and Paradise Mill in Macclesfield. The Paradise Mill had its origins in the early n ..read more

This workshop organized by the Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development is targeted mainly at economic history and comparative development PhD students (but postdocs are welcome to apply as well). It will take place on March 23, the day before this conference, so it is designed so that presenters can then also participate in the conference on the next day, as poster presenters or listeners. There will be faculty attending the workshop including (among others) Dan Bogart (UC-Irvine), James Fenske (Warwick), and James Robinson (University of Chicago). We aim to provide high-level interaction ..read more

Carolyn Sissoko (University of the West of England) and I have released a short paper with the title “Crowding in during the Seven Years’ War“. It will be made available as a CEPR discussion paper, and for now it is in the following link as a University of Manchester discussion paper (open access). The abstract is here: We present a detailed study of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) using a new dataset based on the Bank of England minutes. We argue that the war and associated Bank of England actions led to a transformation of the financial system. Additionally, while there was short-term crowd ..read more

Last month we had the “Economic History of China in the Long Run” conference, organized by the Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development (with support from other UoM entities as well as the British Academy) and it seems fair to say was a success. In the day before the conference, there was a small informal dinner. Then on the conference day, we had the conference itself, followed by dinner. In the second day, some of us went to the Quarry Bank Mill in Styal, followed by an informal lunch. Below are some photos (some of these photos were taken by Meng Wu, others by me). There are also videos ..read more

Apply to join us! This a 3-year position with plenty of time for research and time to interact with our growing group at the Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development of the University of Manchester. There is also the (optional) possibility to teach. The fellowship is designed to allow early career researchers to develop their research portfolio and to strengthen their future position in the academic job market. You can find details and instructions to apply here. Please note you need to apply both via the UoM link (the previous link) and also via EJM. Please carefully read and follow the i ..read more

Here’s a new working paper, joint with Leonor Costa and António Henriques, and available as a open access here. This is a piece we have been working on for many years and it’s great to finally have it out. We show that historically, Portugal was not a weak state. [This is unlike what scholars such as Godinho, Hespanha or Justino argued, and in the case of Spain, Regina Grafe, who argued that early modern Spain was a weak state; personally, I long suspected that could not be right, and this is not confirmed by the historical fiscal capacity measures of Karaman and Pamuk while its implications h ..read more

You can hear my participation in Dan Snow’s History Hit podcast here. Thanks to Dan for the invitation. For anyone interested in knowing more, this is the paper underlying this participation (joint with Patrick O’Brien), available in open access here. Emergency podcast Economic historian @nunopgpalma explains how the Bank of England came to be, how it supported Britain's imperial and industrial ambitions and why the cost of borrowing matters. Alot. : https://t.co/OeywtiLKdS — Dan Snow (@thehistoryguy) September 27, 2022 ..read more