Economic History and Political Economy

Most of our projects overlap multiple disciplines and sub-disciplines and address important societal issues. Members currently span the Departments of Economics, Political Science, Social Policy and Sociology and the Centre for Health Economics.

Prominent themes in our work include

Political economy of institutions, the quality and size of government, fiscal policies, trade, inequality, elections, crime, conflict, and collective action. 

We investigate these topics in both contemporaneous as well as historic settings.

Economic history of European countries and regions since Roman times as well as European and global monetary history since the mid-19th century.

Activities

We run bi-weekly seminar series and meet up regularly for lunch to speak formally and informally about research. Additionally, we periodically organise workshops.

Recent published projects

Our work is regularly published in leading journals such as: American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics, AEJ: Microeconomics, European Economic Review, Journal of Economic History, Journal of Comparative Economics, Explorations in Economic History, Public Choice, Economic Inquiry, European Review of Economic History, and Financial History Review.  Recent examples include:

• Foreign Debt, Capital Controls, and Secondary Markets: Theory and Evidence from Nazi Germany, Andrea Papadia (with ), Journal of Political Economy (2024). 
• Roman Transport Network Connectivity and Economic Integration, M. Flückiger (with E. Hornung, M. Larch, M. Ludwig and A. Mees), Review of Economic Studies (2022). 
• The Economics of Discriminatory Job Reservations, J. P. Choy, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics (forthcoming). 
• Polarization and Corruption in America, A. Pickering (with M. Melki), European Economic Review (2020). 
• How Britain Unified Germany: Trade Routes and the Formation of the Zollverein, T. Huning (with N. Wolf), The Journal of Economic History 
• Taming the Global Financial Cycle: Central Banks as Shock Absorbers in the First Era of Globalization, M. Morys (with G. Bazot and E. Monnet), Journal of Economic History (2022).
• Fiscal Space and the Procyclicality of Fiscal Policy: The Case for Making Hay While the Sun Shines, A. Ahmad (with R. McManus and G. Ozkan), Economic Inquiry (2021).
• The Uncovered Set and the Core: Cox's Result Revisited, A. Bhattacharya (with V. Brosi and F. Ciardiello), Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design (2018).

People