Economic History and Economic Development

The theme for EHA 2016 is “economic history and economic development.” Economic history is contextual and a longitudinal process, and so too is economic development. Both fields, moreover, view law and politics as important drivers of economic change. Yet, the fields are typically somewhat divorced. Economic history focuses on past development experiences, often (though not exclusively) in currently-developed economies, while economic development focuses on currently poor economies. While there is much methodological congruence, studying the past usually requires exploiting observational, archival data (perhaps exploiting “natural experiments”).

In contrast, the study of the present allows for the implementation of randomized control trials that represent a benchmark for identifying causal effects. One aim of the conference is to point to what the two fields can learn from each other.

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