Department of Economic History

Kick-off

Now we are ready for 2025/2026!

Many thanks to Professor John Turner from Queen's University, Belfast who gave an interesting seminar entitled “Speculation in the UK, 1785-2019”on Wednesday.

Thanks to everyone who came and contributed to great discussions!

A big thank you to Professor Chris Dibben, Chair of the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh, for his captivating department seminar “Smoke, Cognitive Ability and Later Life Health and Social Position", which focused on the lasting impact of 1930s air pollution on Scottish children. He presented insights into how early-life air pollution has shaped cognitive abilities, health, and social outcomes throughout the life course. We appreciate your engaging presentation and the important discussion that followed!

Many thanks to Associate Professor Giancarlo Macchi Janica from the University of Siena's Department of Historical Sciences and Cultural Heritage for taking the time to hold a seminar titled “GHOST TOWNS AND EMPTY LANDSCAPES: A GIS-Based Approach to Analyzing Historical Population Dynamics in Peripheral Areas." In a well-attended seminar room, he presented his framework for analyzing critical demographic issues in the inner peripheries of southern Tuscany, where communities face existential threats from population decline and aging.

What a week of seminars!

Seminars two days in a row!
It is important to take advantage of the opportunities!

Meredith Paker, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Grinnell College, began presenting her paper, "Predictive Modeling the Past," on Tuesday. Her novel method of significantly improving historical wage estimations sparked great interest and questions from the audience.

On Wednesday Petri Talvitie, a research fellow and docent at the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Helsinki, gave a seminar titled “Equal Poverty, Unequal Development? Industrialization and the Emergence of Gender Wage Gap in Eastern Finland during the 19th Century.” Also this seminar addressed historical wages, but with a focus on the gender wage gap, and by using a very innovative source of historical court records.

Many thanks to Meredith Paker and Petri Talvitie who devoted their time to contributing to good and interesting discussions during the seminars this week.

In a packed seminar room, PhD student Nicolò Badino from the University of Genoa presented parts of his thesis work entitled “The spatial diffusion of the British Industrial Revolution”.

An exciting and interesting topic where there were many questions and fruitful discussions. We will follow the further work and look forward to seeing the final result 😊

Many thanks to Professor Ola Olsson from the Department of Economics at the University of Gothenburg who presented his newly published book Paleoeconomics: The Climate Pulse of Human Evolution, at todays seminar.

A very well attended seminar with many questions and interesting discussions. The link to the book is here https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-52784-5

What a seminar!

Many thanks to Alice Evans and all the seminar participants for a very inspiring and interesting seminar entitled “How did Scandinavia become the most gender equal place in the world?”

It led to many questions, thoughts and discussions, just as it should be 🙂

If you are curious, you can read more on Alice Evans' blog
https://www.ggd.world/

Finally, the spring seminar series has started!

Many thanks to Anna Grodecka (Sveriges Riksbank) who gave an interesting, inspiring and rewarding presentation of her paper entitled Central Bank Profitability and Inflation: Evidence from 350 Years of Central Bank History.