About EH.Net

Posted Sun, 2005-02-06 13:30 by backend

The Economic History Association owns and operates the EH.net website and mailing lists to provide resources and promote communication among scholars in economic history and related fields. The Economic History Society (U.K.), the Business History Conference, and the Cliometric Society also support the site.

they see aro

Posted Thu, 2013-05-16 23:20 by Anonymous
Name: 
sdgsda
Email: 
hsd@google.com

can actually obtain what they see around the runway.? Possibilities are out there for sponsors and advertisers looking to attain an affluent fashion-conscious audience. They come for special occasions including family reunions, birthdays and anniversaries, father-daughter outings, and wedding proposals. In the Far East to Europe to Canada and South America, the shows have generated a terrific deal of interest, and folks are shopping for tickets as much as six months in advance. Tickets are readily available by way buberry sac of the company site as well as by means of different ticket outlets worldwide. The participating designers present a few of the ideal wearable couture and exquisite accessories. Recent gucci belts shows have featured collections by designers from cheap givenchy bags a host of nations such as Austria, South Africa, Colombia,

Is History Useful ? Come and find out in Paris on 31 May 2013

Posted Wed, 2013-05-15 08:42 by Anonymous
Name: 
Nancy Lockkamper
Email: 
nancy.lockkamper@savings-banks.com

ESBG Workshop on Financial History, Paris, 31 May 2013

This workshop will focus on the impact of financial crises on savings and savings banks institutions, drawing parallels and establishing the differences with the current recession. The presentations will provide historical perspectives on savings behaviour and savings institutions in the aftermath of financial crises and draw lessons for the current policy debate ...

Programme

- Welcome Address by Mrs Florence Raineix, Directeur Général, Fédération nationale des caisses d’épargne

- The Role of Crises in History – a macroeconomic perspective - Prof. Dr. Johannes Bähr, Historisches Seminar Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main

- “The impact of crises on Savings Banks Institutions in the United Kingdom” - Prof. Richard Roberts, King’s College London

- “The impact of crises on the Savings Banks Institutions in Germany” – Prof. Paul Thomes, Lehr- und Forschungsgebiet Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte RWTH Aachen

“The impact of crises on the Savings Banks Institutions in France” – Mr. Vincent Tournié, docteur en histoire, chargé de cours à l’université de Paris VII.

- “The impact of crises on the Savings Banks Institutions in Italy” – Prof. Giovanni Manghetti, President, Cassa di Risparmio di Volterra SpA.

- “Saving banks crises in Spain: When and How” – Prof. Pablo Martin-Aceña, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad de Alcalá

- “Banks and Crisis : Sweden during 150 years” – Prof. Enrique Rodriguez, Centre for Banking and Finance, KTH & Mr. Mats Andersson, Archivist, Swedbank

- “Which lessons can be learnt from History? – How Norway escaped the global economic meltdown relatively unscathed” Mr. Ole Morten Geving, Director, Finance Norway

- Closing Words by Mr. Chris De Noose, WSBI-ESBG Managing Director
 
Venue

Hôtel de Boisgelin
Fédération nationale des caisses d'épargne,
5, rue Masseran 75007 Paris
France

Why Australia Prospered: The Shifting Sources of Economic Growth

Posted Fri, 2013-05-10 10:07 by whaples
Author: 
McLean, Ian W.
Reviewer: 
Harper, Ian

Published by EH.Net (May 2013)

Ian W. McLean, Why Australia Prospered: The Shifting Sources of Economic Growth. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012. xvi + 281 pp. $35 (cloth), ISBN: 978-0-691-15467-1.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Ian Harper, Deloitte Access Economics.

There was a time not so long ago when the study of Australian economic history was taken more seriously than it is today.  Australia’s major universities boasted separate departments of economic history, in which some of the authors familiar to any student of Australian economic history studied and taught.  Occasionally professional economic historians took their place alongside economists in departments of economics, as is true of the author of this fine book, who taught for many years at the University of Adelaide in South Australia.

Why Australia Prospered is the first major survey of Australia’s modern economic history to appear in many years, and it is an outstanding piece of scholarship.  Indeed, in his comment on the dust-cover, E.L. Jones, one of Australia’s internationally distinguished economic historians, confidently predicts that, “it will become the standard work on Australian economic history.”

The book spans the full gamut of Australia’s story from the settlement of the penal colony of New South Wales by the British in 1788 to current debates about the future of Australian prosperity in the wake of the China-driven resources boom.  A great strength of the book is its value to readers interested in Australia’s contemporary economic challenges as much as to those keen to understand more of what distinguishes Australia’s historical experience from that of similar “settler” economies like Canada, the United States and Argentina, with which Australia is often compared.

Geographic Area: 
Australia/New Zealand, incl. Pacific Islands
Subject: 
Economic Development, Growth, and Aggregate Productivity
Economywide Country Studies and Comparative History
Time period: 
18th Century
19th Century
20th Century: Pre WWII
20th Century: WWII and post-WWII

LSE Economic History workshop

Posted Thu, 2013-05-09 09:15 by Anonymous
Name: 
Judy Stephenson
Email: 
j.z.stephenson@lse.ac.uk

Call for Papers – LSE Economic History Thesis Workshop

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/seminars/EH590Workshop/Summer-2013.aspx

The Department of Economic History at LSE is now inviting external papers for its weekly Thesis workshop. The workshop runs weekly in term times on Wednesday from 5-7pm and is attended regularly by faculty and department research students. The format is a maximum 45 minute presentation, usually on a paper at advanced stage of research and preparation, with a further 45 minutes for questions and discussion.

The workshop is ideal for those in the final year of their PhD research who wish to expose their research to an audience of peers and senior academics and test ideas and methodologies prior to completion of their thesis.

To apply to speak in Michelmas term 2013 (Thursday 3 October - Friday 13 December 2013), please send details of your proposed paper to Workshop conveners Natacha Postel-Vinay (n.m.postel-vinay@lse.ac.uk) and / or Judy Stephenson (j.z.stephenson@lse.ac.uk) by Wednesday 26th June 2013, giving details of your Thesis title, institution and expected submission date. We will contact those applying within (at the latest) 2 weeks of this date.

This Friday at Columbia University: The Declassification Engine

Posted Wed, 2013-05-08 11:49 by Anonymous
Name: 
Nicole K. Ferraiolo
Email: 
n.ferraiolo@columbia.edu

The Declassification Engine
Conference on the Computational Analysis of Official Secrecy
Friday, May 10 2013
9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Lecture Hall (3rd Floor), School of Journalism (Pulitzer)
Columbia University

Historians, journalists, legal scholars, statisticians, and computer scientists are meeting at Columbia University to consider how computational methods can illuminate the broad patterns of official secrecy and accelerate the declassification process.
More information about the workshop can be found here:
www.declassification-engine.org

Registration required
Seating is limited. If you would like to attend please register here:
http://www.declassification-engine.org/index.py?section=conference

Call for Chapter Proposals - "Complexity, Crisis and the Evolution of the Financial System: Critical Perspectives on American and British Banking"

Posted Wed, 2013-05-08 05:53 by Anonymous
Name: 
Matthew Hollow
Email: 
matthew.hollow@durham.ac.uk

In terms both of its scale and severity, the worldwide financial crisis of 2007–2008 was the most damaging financial crisis to affect the world economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Many major financial institutions around the world collapsed or had to be bailed-out by governments. Global trade was also severely hit and a large number of national economies went into deep recessions. In the view of many economists and politicians, one of the main reasons why the fallout from the worldwide financial crisis of 2007–2008 proved to be so damaging was down to the fact that the global financial system had, in the years prior to the crisis, simply become too complex. This increased complexity, it is argued, proved to be especially damaging in the aftermath of the 2007–2008 crisis not only because it led to increased levels of contagion, but also because it made it more difficult for governments and regulators to intervene effectively.

This edited volume contributes to these ongoing debates by bringing together some of the top academics from the US and UK in the disciplines of Law, History and Economics to look in more depth at the historical and institutional aspects of the relationship between financial crises and systemic complexity. Conceptually, it is motivated by three main questions:

> Is the present financial system more complex than in the past and, if so, why?

> To what extent and in what ways does the worldwide financial crisis of 2007–2008 differ from past financial crises?

> How can governments, regulators and businesses better manage and deal with increased levels of complexity both in the present and in the future?

call for papers EHA sessions at 2014 ASSA

Posted Sun, 2013-05-05 11:24 by Anonymous
Name: 
Mike Haupert
Email: 
mhaupert@uwlax.edu

Call for Papers
2014 ASSA Meetings
January 3-5, 2014

The Economic History Association will sponsor two sessions at the ASSA meetings in Philadelphia, January 3-5, 2014. The program committee includes Martha Bailey and Carola Frydman. Authors interested in presenting a paper should provide a 2-3 page summary of the proposed paper at http://eh.net/content/2014-assa-meetingssubmission-form by May 10, 2013.

We would like to make summaries of the papers available in advance of the ASSA meetings, and the Cliometric Society has agreed to publish them on the Society’s website. Thus, authors submitting proposals should be prepared to provide a copy of their paper for posting on the Cliometric Society website by November 30, 2013. Send a copy of the paper to Mike Haupert at mhaupert@uwlax.edu.

At least one author must be a member of the Economic History Association.

Proposals due: May 10, 2013
Authors notified of acceptance of paper: June 15, 2013
Paper due at the Society office: November 30, 2013
ASSA Meetings in Philadelphia: January 3-5, 2014

Please email any questions to: mhaupert@uwlax.edu

Michael J. Haupert
Department of Economics
University of Wisconsin – La Crosse
La Crosse, WI 54601

Phone: (608) 785-6863
Fax: (608) 785-8549

Nominations for Hughes Prize

Posted Fri, 2013-05-03 14:00 by Anonymous
Name: 
Melissa Thomasson
Email: 
mthomasson@MiamiOH.edu

The deadline for nominations for the Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History has been extended to June 1, 2013. Letters of nomination should state what qualities of excellence the candidate's teaching of economic history has embodied. The strength of the nominating letter will be the primary basis for selecting the pool of finalists for the prize.

Please send nominations electronically to Melissa Thomasson (mthomasson@MiamiOH.edu) or via mail:

Melissa Thomasson
Dept of Economics, MSC 1035
800 E. High Street, Rm. #2054
Oxford, OH 45056

An Economic History of Ireland since Independence

Posted Thu, 2013-05-02 12:23 by whaples
Author: 
Bielenberg, Andy
Ryan, Raymond
Reviewer: 
Barry, Frank

Published by EH.Net (May 2013)

Andy Bielenberg and Raymond Ryan, An Economic History of Ireland since Independence.  New York: Routledge, 2013. xxii + 282 pp. £85/$145 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-415-56694-0.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Frank Barry, School of Business, Trinity College Dublin.

This is a very comprehensive and hugely satisfying survey of its subject matter.  It begins with British Prime Minister Lloyd George’s last-minute offer of full fiscal autonomy during the Treaty negotiations that led to independence in 1922, and takes us right up to the bank guarantee of 2008 that would lead to the loss of fiscal sovereignty to the Troika of funders (the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank) two years later.  It has been a rocky road, as the title of a previous short economic history of Ireland puts it.

Geographic Area: 
Europe
Subject: 
Economywide Country Studies and Comparative History
Time period: 
20th Century: Pre WWII
20th Century: WWII and post-WWII

Final EHA Dissertation Award Reminder

Posted Wed, 2013-05-01 12:45 by lanasooter
Name: 
Ian keay
Email: 
ikeay@econ.queensu.ca

Dissertation Awards
The Nevins and Gerschenkron prizes are awarded annually for the best dissertations on North-American and non-North American topics completed during the previous year. Six finalists, three for each award, will be chosen to present dissertation summaries at the Seventy Second Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association in Washington DC in September 2013. Finalists will receive $500 to defray travel expenses. Award recipients receive a cash prize of $1,200.
Scholars submitting a dissertation may not in the same year submit a proposal to the general program that is part of or derived from their dissertation. On an exception basis the Association will allow a two year window following thesis completion for submission.
Eligibility: Those who received their Ph.D. between May 16, 2012 and May 15, 2013 are eligible and invited to submit their dissertation for consideration. All candidates for these prizes must be members of the Economic History Association. Dissertations submitted for consideration must be in English. Submission of a dissertation implies that candidates are prepared to attend the 2013 meetings in Washington DC. Presentation of a dissertation summary is required by all finalists. To be considered for these prizes completed dissertations must be submitted in hard copy on or before May 15, 2013. Notices announcing the selection of finalists will be sent to all candidates by July 24, 2013. Dissertations will only be returned to candidates if a self-addressed envelope is provided at the time of submission.
DEADLINE FOR POSTMARKED ENTRIES: May 15, 2013
Allan Nevins Prize
The Allan Nevins Prize is awarded on behalf of Columbia University Press for the best dissertation in US or Canadian Economic History published during the preceding year.
Please send dissertations to:
Professor Ian Keay Department of Economics Queen's University 94 University Avenue
Kingston, ON, Canada
K7L 3N6
email: ikeay@econ.queensu.ca

REMINDER: 10th EHES Conference Bursaries

Posted Wed, 2013-05-01 09:21 by Anonymous
Name: 
Olivier Accominotti
Email: 
o.accominotti@lse.ac.uk

Tenth Conference of the European Historical Economics Society (EHES) Bursaries

The Tenth European Historical Economics Society Conference will be held at
the London School of Economics, Friday-Saturday, 6-7 September 2013.

The Conference Organising Committee consisting of Stephen Broadberry and
Olivier Accominotti invites applications from young scholars for Bursaries to
cover the costs of travel and accommodation. There will be 10 bursaries of €500
available to help PhD students cover the costs of attending the conference.

All applications must include the following items:
(1) A curriculum vitae
(2) A letter of support from your PhD supervisor
(3) An abstract of the paper to be presented at the conference

Please send your application by email to o.accominotti@lse.ac.uk by 6 May 2013.

German Immigration and Servitude in America, 1709-1920

Posted Wed, 2013-05-01 09:19 by whaples
Author: 
Grubb, Farley
Reviewer: 
Wegge, Simone A.

Published by EH.Net (May 2013)

Farley Grubb, German Immigration and Servitude in America, 1709-1920. New York: Routledge, 2011. xxvi + 433 pp. $190 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-415-61061-2.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Simone A. Wegge, Department of Economics, CUNY.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Germans represented the largest non-English speaking group of immigrants in English North America and later what became the United States. Many of them settled in the state of Pennsylvania; by the middle of the eighteenth century those who claimed German ancestry made up over 50 percent of the population of Pennsylvania, and by the first U.S. census in 1790 over half of all Germans in the U.S. could be found living in the Keystone state. Farley Grubb focuses on German immigration to the state of Pennsylvania in this book, discussing what economic factors guided their decisions, what their immigrant experiences were like, and why they resorted to servitude contracts. The book is divided into three parts, the first on German immigration which focuses on the immigrant experience and immigrant characteristics, a second part covering the servitude market and its demise, and a third part which is an epilogue. The heart of the book consists of the first two parts.

Farley Grubb is a researcher’s researcher, or a scholar’s scholar: he cares more about uncovering the empirical truth than espousing a particular economic model or popular historical theme. Grubb is brutally honest about his work, how he came to the data, what they can do and cannot do, and what is old and what is new in this book.  In another life he would make a great Atticus Finch or Detective Columbo. This is part of the reason this book was such a pleasure to read. I felt like I was getting the truth as best as he sees it, pretty or not.

Geographic Area: 
North America
Subject: 
Historical Demography, including Migration
Servitude and Slavery
Time period: 
18th Century
19th Century
20th Century: Pre WWII

6th Arezzo School in Economic History - Call for Applications

Posted Tue, 2013-04-30 14:40 by Anonymous
Name: 
Daniel J. Velinov
Email: 
velinov@phare.normalesup.org

6th AREZZO SCHOOL IN ECONOMIC HISTORY

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

COMMODITY TRADE AND PAYMENTS IN EUROPE (14th - 17th CENTURIES): TRADESMEN, FIRMS, NETWORKS AND SYSTEMS

Arezzo, Italy, 1-5 July 2013

The École française de Rome, together with the University of Paris-7- « Denis Diderot », the Institut d'histoire moderne et contemporaine (CNRS-École normale supérieure), the Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, the University of Siena (Dipartimento di Scienze della formazione, scienze umane e della comunicazione interculturale of Arezzo) and the Fraternità dei Laici of Arezzo, award 15 scholarships for young post-graduate and post-doctoral fellows, citizens of the European Union, conducting research in pre-industrial European economic history. Scholarships provide for accommodation, lunches and dinners.

Last year, the Arezzo graduate school was devoted to price formation. The 2013 session will deal with commodity exchange and payment procedures.
The selection committee welcomes papers on the various forms and scales of market organization (local/regional/international, urban/rural) and on distribution channels (maritime/by land). Participants are encouraged to highlight the interconnection between the various levels of commercial exchange of raw materials, agricultural commodities and manufactured goods.
The workshop will also investigate the way in which commercial groups dealt with regulatory and judicial bodies in charge of controlling and insuring trade. This issue relates to the question of whether and how the organizational mode of operators (individual firms, joint-ventures, companies, agency-based networks, gilds and foreign ‘nations’) shape the way they interact with institutions.

Post-Doctoral Researcher in Economic History

Posted Tue, 2013-04-30 11:37 by Anonymous
Name: 
Roger Fouquet
Email: 
r.fouquet@lse.ac.uk

Post-Doctoral Research Assistant - Economic History

The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment is seeking a Post-doctoral Research Assistant, working on 'Green growth: What can be learnt from economic history?’. It is part of the Grantham Research Institute’s larger research programme on ‘Green growth and a new Industrial Revolution’, supported by the Global Green Growth Institute.

The research programme’s objective is to investigate aspects of past transformations of economies’ structures with a view to informing the debate about the pre-conditions and prospects for ‘green growth.’

The programme will initially comprise work on two projects: ‘Historical evidence of policy related to green growth’ and ‘Ensuring energy service access to the poor in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries’.

The post holder will be required to identify appropriate methods of investigation or analysis according to data and objectives and construct analytical and empirical models to investigate aspects of structural change in economies in the past.

The full job description, including summaries of the two projects, is available online.
https://atsv7.wcn.co.uk/search_engine/jobs.cgi?amNvZGU9MTMyMjQ5MCZ2dF90ZW1wbGF0ZT05Mjgmb3duZXI9NTA0MDczNSZvd25lcnR5cGU9ZmFpciZicmFuZF9pZD0wJnBvc3RpbmdfY29kZT0yMjQmcmVxc2lnPTEzNjU2ODY2NzQtZGUyZGZhNDc4MDczNGJmMGRjZThhNzgxODBhYzY2ZWI2NmQyNjUyNQ%3D%3D&jcode=1322490&vt_template=928&owner=5040735&ownertype=fair&brand_id=0&posting_code=224&reqsig=1365686674-de2dfa4780734bf0dce8a78180ac66eb66d26525

Further information about the Institute and its related centres/programmes is also online.
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/research/GreenGrowth/economic-history-growth.aspx

Details

Salary: £26,846 - £31,074 per annum inclusive

Status: Fixed term for two years

The Telegraph in America, 1832-1920

Posted Tue, 2013-04-30 09:46 by whaples
Author: 
Hochfelder, David
Reviewer: 
Nalbach, Alex

Published by EH.Net (April 2013)

David Hochfelder, The Telegraph in America, 1832-1920. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. viii + 250 pp. $55 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-1-4124-0747-0.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Alex Nalbach, Department of History, Baldwin-Wallace University.

Sensitive readers of David Hochfelder’s brief history of nineteenth-century American telegraphy may cringe at the title of his introduction, “Why the Telegraph Was Revolutionary,” fearing sweeping generalizations and a crude technological determinism. In fact, however, the author, a historian of technology at the State University of New York, Albany, develops nuanced analyses of the impact of telegraphy upon American life, noting that many of the changes it wrought were modest, or partial, or moderated by an array of factors. As Hochfelder writes in his conclusion, “a technology does not effect change by itself but requires mediation through existing institutions.” (p. 179)

To be sure, by eliminating the need for a physical courier of messages, telegraphy “liberated communication from transportation,” a “revolution in technical practice” (p. 3) And it did inspire some users to change their habits, organizations, and expectations in order to maximize its potential. But the high costs of telegraphy in the late nineteenth century restricted its use to only about one in sixty Americans, and many of these users refused to adjust their social preferences and political goals to suit the new technology.

Geographic Area: 
North America
Subject: 
Business History
History of Technology, including Technological Change
Time period: 
19th Century
20th Century: Pre WWII

Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Southampton

Posted Mon, 2013-04-29 11:43 by Anonymous
Name: 
Dr Jonathan Conlin
Email: 
j.conlin@soton.ac.uk

Thanks to the generous support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the University of Southampton recently launched a three-year project to research the life and career of one of the most renowned yet mysterious figures in the history of the oil industry. Based for the majority of his life in London and Paris, Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955) was a businessman, diplomat, art collector and philanthropist who helped to create such modern industry names as Shell and Total.

Applications are invited for a one-year full-time Research Fellowship. Working closely with the Principal Investigator, Dr Jonathan Conlin, you will be undertaking archival and other research into this enigmatic individual and his activities. You will have a PhD (or equivalent) in business, economic or diplomatic history as well as experience of independent working in state and business archives.

For further information:

https://www.jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=231413F4

Keynes’s General Theory for Today: Contemporary Perspectives

Posted Mon, 2013-04-29 09:19 by whaples
Reviewer: 
Davidson, Paul

Published by EH.Net (April 2013)

Jesper Jespersen and Mogens Ove Madsen, editors, Keynes’s General Theory for Today: Contemporary Perspectives. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2012. x + 237 pp. $110 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-1-78100-951-2.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Paul Davidson, Department of Economics, University of Tennessee.

This volume presents twelve papers that relate Keynes’s General Theory to the world we live in today.  The papers were delivered at a conference held in 2011 at Roskilde University in Denmark.

A sage once said “A classic is a book everyone cites but no one has read or understood.”  For at least five of the authors in this volume, the General Theory is a classic in the sense of the sage’s terminology.

Geographic Area: 
General, International, or Comparative
Subject: 
History of Economic Thought; Methodology
Time period: 
20th Century: Pre WWII
20th Century: WWII and post-WWII

The American Technological Challenge: Stagnation and Decline in the 21st Century

Posted Fri, 2013-04-26 08:35 by whaples
Author: 
Vijg, Jan
Reviewer: 
Mokyr, Joel

Published by EH.Net (April 2013)

Jan Vijg, The American Technological Challenge: Stagnation and Decline in the 21st Century.  New York: Algora Publishing, 2011.  248 pp.  $33 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-87586-886-8.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Joel Mokyr, Departments of Economics and History, Northwestern University.

 
Jan Vijg is a Dutch-born leading molecular geneticist at one of the most prestigious scientific institutions in the nation.  He displays an insatiable appetite for history and technology and an intellectual curiosity that would do credit to the most interdisciplinary of economic historians.  He is also well-read, thoughtful, and articulate, and asks excellent questions.  The result is a thought-provoking and lively “big picture” book, ideal for undergraduate teachers who want to introduce young students without a strong background in economics and history to global history. 

Geographic Area: 
General, International, or Comparative
North America
Subject: 
History of Technology, including Technological Change
Time period: 
General or Comparative
20th Century: WWII and post-WWII

CfP: Session Papers for "Inequality"

Posted Fri, 2013-04-26 04:34 by Anonymous
Name: 
Daniel Waldenström
Email: 
daniel.waldenstrom@nek.uu.se

Title of session: Inequality

Organizers of Session:
Daniel Waldenström (Uppsala University)

Conference: 10th Swedish Economic History Meeting
Venue: Lund, Sweden
Date: 4-5 Oct 2013
Conference website: http://en.sehf.org

Description of Session:
This session deals with historical perspectives of economic inequality. Studies of levels and trends in the distribution of income and wealth are central, but other dimensions of inequality are also of interest. For example, papers may address other relevant outcomes (e.g., consumption), the role of inheritance, pay inequality as well as compositional questions (labor vs capital, gender, age). Socio-economic mobility within and between generations is also of high interest. Papers using microdata are specifically encouraged, but this is no requirement.

Scholars interested in presenting their work on the session should write an e-mail, including a one-page abstract and a short CV (in PDF format), to Daniel Waldenström (e-mail: daniel.waldenstrom@nek.uu.se) as soon as possible and no later than May 15, 2013. Notification of acceptance will be giving by end of May 2013.

Language of Session:
English

The Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Economy, 1920 to 1938: A National Accounts Study

Posted Thu, 2013-04-25 14:32 by whaples
Author: 
Salgado, M.R.P.
Reviewer: 
van der Eng, Pierre

Published by EH.Net (April 2013)

M.R.P. Salgado, The Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Economy, 1920 to 1938: A National Accounts Study. Colombo: Social Scientists’ Association, 2011. xvi + 323 pp. US$20 (paperback), ISBN: 978-955-1772-99-4.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Pierre van der Eng, Department of Economics, Australian National University

Compared to other Asian countries, Sri Lanka has an abundance of historical economic statistics, particularly since 1802 when Ceylon (as the country was known until 1972) came under British control. For taxation purposes, Ceylon’s British administrators intensified and improved the collection of statistical data throughout the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Ceylon became a major producer of agricultural exports, such as coffee, tea and rubber, and the data on agricultural export production are particularly extensive. Consequently, when the country received a degree of self-government in 1931 and independence in 1948, Ceylon’s official agencies generated a good amount of economic statistics of reasonable quality compared to other less-developed countries in Asia.

Several authors, such as Snodgrass (1966), have used Ceylon’s historical economic statistics in descriptive ways to assess long-term economic change in the country. Despite their relative richness, these data were hardly aggregated in a more rigorous way, such as through a national accounting framework, to trace the phases and proximate causes of long-term economic growth in the country. This is even more surprising, given that national accounting was introduced into this developing country already in the 1940s, and that a national accounting tradition developed in Ceylon to the extent that by the late-1950s both the Department of Census and Statistics and the Bank of Ceylon (BoC) produced official national accounts separately that retrospectively reached back to 1938, respectively 1950.

Geographic Area: 
Asia
Subject: 
Income and Wealth
Time period: 
20th Century: Pre WWII

Funding Loyalty: The Economics of the Communist Party

Posted Tue, 2013-04-23 10:10 by whaples
Author: 
Belova, Eugenia
Lazarev, Valery
Reviewer: 
Ericson, Richard E.

Published by EH.Net (April 2013)

Eugenia Belova and Valery Lazarev, Funding Loyalty: The Economics of the Communist Party. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013. xi + 209 pp. $35 (paper), ISBN: 978-0-300-16436-7.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Richard E. Ericson, Department of Economics, East Carolina University.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) has been much studied in the historical, political science, and even economics literatures as a driving force in the Soviet system, the ruling oligarchy’s critical instrument of control. Most work has focused on the Party’s structures, rules, and roles in the Soviet system, and remained rather formal and speculative in discussing its inner workings, with most focus on its highest levels. Belova and Lazarev use heretofore unexploited archival resources – detailed financial records of regional and local Party organizations from 1938 to 1965, their discussion in the Central Committee department, and some records from the 1980s – to cast new light on these workings, in particular on the incentives of these organizations molded by their budgets and revealed in budget implementation. Their analysis is explicitly economic, focusing on costs and benefits, on the “supply” and “demand” sides of the relationships between the Party leadership, Party professionals, Party activists, and others. In ten chapters, including an introduction and conclusion, it systematically builds the case that the CPSU evolved into a largely self-interested business enterprise, still serving the state through maintaining kadre, loyal to its leadership, which spanned all the disparate regions of the Soviet Union. In doing so, this research makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Soviet system and how it actually functioned.

Geographic Area: 
Asia
Europe
Subject: 
Economic Planning and Policy
Time period: 
20th Century: Pre WWII
20th Century: WWII and post-WWII

Annual Conference of the Economic and Social History Society of Ireland 2013

Posted Tue, 2013-04-23 05:41 by Anonymous
Name: 
Chris Colvin
Email: 
chris.colvin@qub.ac.uk

CALL FOR PAPERS

Annual Conference of the Economic and Social History Society of Ireland 2013
National University of Ireland, Galway
Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd November 2013

The Connell Memorial Lecture will be given by Prof. Cormac Ó Gráda (UCD)

Papers on all aspects of the economic and social history of Ireland are welcome.
Proposals should include an abstract of 100-250 words, a very brief CV and full contact details.
Deadline for receipt of proposals: 31st July 2013.

Please send proposals to either:
Niall Ó Ciosáin (niall.ociosain@nuigalway.ie)
Caitriona Clear (caitriona.clear@nuigalway.ie)

Please visit our new website for more information: http://www.eshsi.org/

ANU CEH workshop on Transport Infrastructure

Posted Mon, 2013-04-22 01:26 by Anonymous
Name: 
John Tang
Email: 
john.tang@anu.edu.au

Transport infrastructure is fundamental to economic prosperity but its genesis and its effects have very long time horizons. On 24 May 2013, the Centre for Economic History at the Australian National University will be hosting a workshop that takes a long run perspective on how and why major infrastructure initiatives got off the ground and others did not. Papers include evaluation of the impact of infrastructure on the volume and location of economic activity in Australia and overseas.

A full program can be found at: http://rse.anu.edu.au/CEH/files/CEH_Transport-Infrastructure-Workshop.pdf

Participation is free and catering will be provided. To register interest in attending, please send an email to CEH.RSE@anu.edu.au

ANU CEH workshop on Interwar Economics and Finance

Posted Mon, 2013-04-22 01:11 by Anonymous
Name: 
John Tang
Email: 
john.tang@anu.edu.au

The Centre for Economic History at the Australian National University is hosting a workshop on 10 May 2013 that explores trends and developments in economics and finance in the era leading up to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Prominent economic historians will be presenting their research findings on financial and monetary policy, with a keynote presentation by Barry Eichengreen. The workshop is proudly supported by the Sir Roland Wilson Foundation.

A complete program can be found at: http://rse.anu.edu.au/CEH/files/CEH_Interwar-workshop.pdf

Participation is free and catering will be provided. To register interest in attending, please send an email to CEH.RSE@anu.edu.au

Welfare and Old Age in Europe and North America: The Development of Social Insurance

Posted Fri, 2013-04-19 08:59 by whaples
Reviewer: 
Silvestre, Javier

Published by EH.Net (April 2013)

Bernard Harris, editor, Welfare and Old Age in Europe and North America: The Development of Social Insurance. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2012. xvii + 270 pp. £60/$99 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-184893-189-3.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Javier Silvestre, Department of Economic History, University of Zaragoza.

As noted by the editor Bernard Harris (University of Southampton) in the introduction to this book, there has recently been great interest in the history of mutualism in a variety of countries. This insightful book gathers together several contributions to the literature, almost all of which originated as papers presented at specialized conferences or sessions at congresses. One of the major virtues of the book is that it offers evidence from a number of countries. Of further significance is its demonstration of the wide variety of mutual benefit societies, differing on such issues as their voluntary or compulsory affiliation, their range of provisions, and their relationships to different social groups. It is, however, the important subject of the link between mutual aid organizations and the origins and consolidation of health and welfare policy that is the common thread running through almost all of the chapters.

The perspectives and methodological approaches of the chapters vary. For example, mutualism is addressed at different geographical levels and time spans. Some chapters concentrate on economic or actuarial questions, whereas others place more emphasis on political, social and cultural concerns.

Geographic Area: 
Europe
North America
Subject: 
Markets and Institutions
Time period: 
19th Century
20th Century: Pre WWII
20th Century: WWII and post-WWII

The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy

Posted Thu, 2013-04-18 12:06 by whaples
Author: 
McCraw, Thomas K.
Reviewer: 
Brownlee, W. Elliot

Published by EH.Net (April 2013)

Thomas K. McCraw, The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.  ix + 485 pp. $35 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-674-00692-2.

Reviewed for EH.Net by W. Elliot Brownlee, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Thomas McCraw, the Straus Professor of Business History Emeritus at the Harvard University Business School, passed away in November 2012, the year this book appeared. Over his career of more than four decades McCraw often used biography as a tool to reveal and explain important trends and developments in the history of American business and economic life. No historian working in the fields of business and economic history has done so as effectively. His last book, The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy, also mobilizes biography as an interpretive tool. The result is a work that lives up to the high standards McCraw set in books like Prophets of Regulation: Charles Francis Adams, Louis D. Brandeis, James M. Landis, and Alfred E. Kahn (Harvard University Press, 1984) and Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction (Harvard University Press, 2007).

Geographic Area: 
North America
Subject: 
Financial Markets, Financial Institutions, and Monetary History
Government, Law and Regulation, Public Finance
Time period: 
18th Century
19th Century

CfP: Session Papers for “Singles and the Economy, 1500-1900”

Posted Tue, 2013-04-16 16:19 by Anonymous
Name: 
Jacob Weisdorf
Email: 
jacobw@sam.sdu.dk

Title of session: Singles and the Economy, 1500-1900

Organizers of Session:
Julie De Groot (Antwerp University)
Ariadne Schmidt (Leiden University)
Jacob Weisdorf (Universities of Southern Denmark and Utrecht)

Conference: 10th Swedish Economic History Meeting
Venue: Lund, Sweden
Date: 4-5 Oct 2013
Conference website: http://en.sehf.org

Description of Session:
The study of single people in the past has witnessed increased attention in recent years. The two key features of the European Marriage Pattern - late marriages and high celibacy rates - resulted in large numbers of singles in early modern society. In recent research the high incidence of singles has been linked to the specific demographic and economic development that Europe went through since the Middle Ages. The goal of the session is to bring together scholars interested in any aspect of the role of singles in economic development and, conversely, the role of economic development on both the amount and share of singles in a society, and on the ways in which singles coped with economic and social change. Topics include (but are not limited to) the study of the socio-economic background of singles and the decision (or likelihood) to become one, as well as their influence on society, e.g. in terms of limiting the rates of fertility and population pressure, but also their influence on the development of new institutions (e.g. for old-age security), their role in changing investment patterns in human capital and in changes in labour markets, as well as their social and cultural status and material living arrangements.

Scholars interested in presenting their work on the session should write an e-mail, including a one-page abstract and a short cv (in PDF format), to Jacob Weisdorf (e-mail: jacobw@sam.sdu.dk) as soon as possible and no later than 30 April 2013. Notification of acceptance will be giving by mid-May.

Language of Session:
English

Call for papers: OIL ROUTES, 4th International Oil History Conference, Paris, november 2013

Posted Tue, 2013-04-16 08:39 by Anonymous
Name: 
Beltran Alain
Email: 
beltran@univ-paris1.fr

Fourth International Colloquium
Call for communications on the following subject:
Oil routes
25/26 November 2013, Paris-La Défense

Since oil production sites do not correspond to the areas of consumption in the majority of cases, as of the outset oil was a product transported over long distances, either by maritime routes or by pipelines. The development of the various major producing countries (the United States, USSR or Russia, Saudi Arabia, …) strengthened that basic tendency. At present, about 2/3 of world oil consumption is marketed via the sea. Before the first oil shock in 1973, half of maritime commerce, taking all products together, was in liquid hydrocarbons. However, beginning in the 1980s, the share of oil in maritime transport declined, but it still accounts for a third of the tonnage of all merchandise sent by sea. Crude oil is largely dominant in those shipments. As of the outset, barrels and casks were sent by sea. Then some “oil tankers” inaugurated some new routes: Elisabeth Watts (1861, Great Britain), Zoroaster (steam-powered oil tanker, 1878), Murex between Liverpool and Bangkok (1892), etc. From the barge widely used in the United States to the supertanker and including the gluckhauf, oil transport has been subject to marked changes. With respect to a more recent period, we may emphasize the development of methane carriers (first France-Algeria route in 1965) carrying LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas). In 2010 the world’s oil fleet came to a little more than 5,000 vessels weighing 435 million DWT. The ship sizes vary, and supertankers can exceed 350 000 DWT. There has been a shift from fleets belonging to the companies to ones owned by independent shippers. The Asian countries have specialized in building such vessels.

VIII Seventh Summer School – Madrid, July 03 – 06, 2013

Posted Tue, 2013-04-16 06:26 by Anonymous
Name: 
Joan Rosés
Email: 
jroses@clio.uc3m.es

Instituto Figuerola of Social Science History (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) organizes the 8th Summer School 2013:

EUROPEAN HISTORICAL ECONOMICS SOCIETY SUMMER SCHOOL

All the information can be downloaded from the website:
http://www.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/instituto_figuerola/home/events_news/8summerschool_2013

The School is scientifically endorsed by:
- the European Historical Economics Society

The main objective of the School is to provide attendants with a state-of-art survey of research topics and methods in the field of economic history.

The Summer School has duration of 4 days (July 03 – 06, 2013) and will take place at the Universidad Carlos III (Getafe campus), joining 25 students from different countries (specially Europeans) and 8 invited professors that will impart their lectures and will contribute to the discussion in the students presentations.

The deadline for submitting applications is May 20, 2013

Syndicate content