AWARDS AT THE 2019 ECONOMIC HISTORY ASSOCIATION MEETINGS
The Economic History Association announced the 2019 prize winners at the Annual Meeting held recently in Atlanta, Georgia.
Alexander Persaud, University of Richmond, was awarded the Arthur H. Cole Prize for the outstanding article published in this JOURNAL in the September 2018 to June 2019 issues, for “Escaping Local Risk by Entering Indentureship: Evidence from Nineteenth-Century Indian Migration,” published in the June 2019 issue of The Journal of Economic History. The editorial board selected the winner.
Ellora Derenoncourt, Princeton University, received the Allan Nevins Prize for the Best Dissertation in U.S. or Canadian Economic History, for her dissertation “Long-Run Determinants of US Racial Inequality: Evidence from the Great Migration and the FLSA,” completed at Harvard University. Advisors: Lawrence Katz and Claudia Goldin. (This prize is awarded on behalf of Columbia University Press.)
Yuzuru Kumon, University of Bocconi, received the Alexander Gerschenkron Prize for the Best Dissertation in non-U.S. or Canadian Economic History, for his dissertation “Rich Europe, Poor Asia: How Wealth Inequality, Demography and Crop Risks Explain the Poverty of Pre-Industrial East Asia, 1300-1800,” completed at the University of California-Davis. Advisors: Gregory Clark (chair), Christopher Meissner, Michael Carter, Peter Lindert, and Katherine Eriksson.
Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University, was awarded the annual Jonathan Hughes Prize honoring excellence in teaching economic history.
Ran Abramitzky, Stanford University, was awarded Gyorgy Ranki Biennial Prize for the outstanding book on the Economic History of Europe. He was awarded for his book The Mystery of the Kibbutz: Egalitarian Principles in a Capitalist World, published by Princeton University Press.
Jared Rubin, Chapman University, was awarded the inaugural Peter Lindert-Jeffrey Williamson Prize for the outstanding book in Global, African, Asian, Australian, and/or South American Economic History. He was awarded for his book Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not, published by Cambridge University Press.
Peter Lindert, University of California — Davis, and Jeffrey Williamson, Harvard University, were awarded the Gallman-Parker Prize for creating, compiling, and sharing data and information with scholars over the course of their careers.
John Tang, University of Melbourne, and ZACH WARD, Baylor University were awarded for Excellence in Refereeing for the Journal of Economic History.
Also announced was the Larry Neal Prize for the best article published in Explorations in American History, awarded to Jean-Pascal Bassino, Stephen Broadberry, Kyoji Fukao, Bishnupriya GUPTA and Masanori Takashima, “Japan and the great divergence, 730–1874,” published in the April 2019 issue.
Awarded for Excellence in Refereeing for Explorations in Economic History were Santiago Pérez, University of California – Davis, and Giovanni Federico, University of Pisa.
THE 2020 ECONOMIC HISTORY ASSOCIATION MEETINGS PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA SEPTEMBER 11–13, 2020 HUGH ROCKOFF
The theme for EHA 2020 is “The Lessons of Economic History.” The Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana famously told us that, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This aphorism crystallizes one of the principal missions of economic history. We study the past so that we can determine which policies are likely to work in the future: which monetary and fiscal policies produce macroeconomic stability, which forms of social insurance protect human welfare, which patent laws spur innovation, and so on. Not all economic historians study past policy interventions directly. Some create data sets or examine chains of causation that contribute indirectly to the mission of discovering which policies work. Proposals that address the theme of the conference are encouraged, but proposals on all topics are welcome.
The Program Committee, chaired by Eugene White (Rutgers University), together with Sumner La Croix (University of Hawaii), Richard Grossman (Wesleyan University), Sarah Quincy (Vanderbilt University), and Kim Oosterlink (Universite Libre de Bruxelles) welcome submissions on all subjects in economic history, though some preference will be given to papers that fit the theme of the conference. Papers should be submitted individually, but authors may suggest to the Committee that three particular papers fit well together in a panel. Papers should in all cases be works in progress rather than accepted or published work. Submitters should let the program committee know at the time of application if the paper they are proposing has already been submitted for publication. Individuals who presented or co-authored a paper given at the 2019 meeting are not eligible for inclusion in the 2020 program. Papers and session proposals should be submitted online, with details to follow on the meetings website: http://eh.net/eha/category/meetings/2020-meeting/. The submission system will be available from 1 November 2019 onward. Paper proposals should include a 3–5 page proposal and a 150-word abstract suitable for publication in the Journal of Economic History. Papers should be submitted by 31 January 2020 to ensure consideration. Please note that at least one of the authors needs to be a member of EHA.
Graduate students are encouraged to attend the meeting. The association offers subsidies for travel, hotel, registration, and meals, including a special graduate student dinner. A poster session welcomes work from dissertations in progress. Applications for the poster session are due no later than 21 May 2020 online on the meetings website. The poster submission system will open on 1 March 2020. The dissertation session, convened by Zorina Khan (Bowdoin College) and Michael Edelstein (The Graduate Center, CUNY) will honor six dissertations completed during the 2019-2020 academic year. The submission deadline is 15 May 2020. The Allan Nevins and Alexander Gerschenkron prizes will be awarded to the best dissertations on North American and non-North American topics respectively. Dissertations must be submitted as a single PDF file. Files of less than 5 MB in size may be sent directly to the conveners as an email attachment. To submit a file of more than 5 MB, please supply a download link in an email message. The Nevins prize submissions should be sent to: bkhan@bowdoin. edu and the Gerschenkron prize submissions to: michael.edelstein@qc.cuny.edu. All submissions will be acknowledged by return email.
EHA GRANT AND FELLOWSHIP AWARDS
The Committee on Research in Economic History (CREH) of the Economic History Association is charged with administrating the Association’s project of assisting young scholars as a way of strengthening the discipline of economic history. The CREH made three types of awards for 2019: fellowships to graduate students writing their dissertations; travel/data grants to graduate students in the early stage of research; and Cole Grants to recent PhDs.
Sokoloff Dissertation Fellowships
Oliver Bush of the London School of Economics for “Were Central Bank Policies Responsible for Economic and Financial Stability during the Golden Age?” Advisors: Albrecht Ritschl and Joan Roses
Laura Taylor of University of Arizona for “Understanding Economic Development and Institutional Change: American Indian Development in the Context of U.S. Western Expansion, 1880-1915.” Advisors: Price V. Fishback, Cihan Artung.
EHA Dissertation Fellowships
Maylis Avaro of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies for “The Rise and Fall of International Currencies under the Bretton Woods Era: A New View from Central Banks’ Reserves.” Advisors: Marc Flandreau, Rui Esteves. Shmuel San of New York University for “Labor Supply and Directed Technical Change: Evidence from the Abrogation of the Bracero Program in 1964.” Advisors: Petra Moser, Christopher Flinn, Martin Rotemberg.
Cambridge University Press Dissertation Fellowship
Chelsea Carter of Boston University for “Essays in Urban and Regional Economic History.” Advisors: Robert A. Margo, James Feigenbaum.
Cambridge University Press Pre-Dissertation Exploratory Grants
Mark Hup of the University of California – Irvine for “Forced Labor, State Capacity, and Globalization: The Case of Colonial Indonesia.” Advisor: Daniel Bogart.
Ryan Stevens of New York University for “Learning from War? An In-Depth Analysis of Knowledge Flows within MIT’s WWII Radiation Lab and its Effects on American Invention.” Advisor: Alessandro Lizzeri.
EHA Pre-Dissertation Exploratory Grants
Ashish Aggarwal of the University of Warwick for “Indentured Migration from India to British Colonies.” Advisor: James Fenske.
Tamoghna Halder of the University of California – Davis for “Caste, Reservations and Social Mobility in India: 1947–2019.” Advisor: Gregory Clark.
Hae Nim (Sunny) Lee of the University of Pennsylvania for “Path Dependence of Local Governance: Evidence from Colonial India.” Advisor: Mariaflavia (Nina) Harari.
Mingxi Li of the University of California – Davis for “Formation and Persistence of Urban Dis-amenities — A Story from Shanghai.” Advisor: Christopher M. Meissner.
Martina Miotto of the University of Warwick for “Poor Relief and Crime: Evidence from the New Poor Law.” Advisor: James Fenske.
Piyush Panigrahi of the University of California – Berkeley for “Fossil Fuel Discoveries and Spatial Dispersion in Manufacturing Activity: Evidence from 1900–40 United States.” Advisor: Andres Rodriguez-Clare.
Martin Schmitz of Vanderbilt University for “Knowledge Accessibility and Cumulative Innovation: Evidence from a Network-econometric Analysis of the Introduction of the British Penny Post in 1839/1840.” Advisor: Bill Collins.
Colin Sharpe of Vanderbilt University for “Common Law and Development in Medieval England and Wales: 1290-1535.” Advisor: Ariell Zimran.
Spencer Stewart of the University of Chicago for “The Economics of Cotton Science in Republican China, 1918-1949.” Advisor: Kenneth Pomeranz.
Arthur H. Cole Grants in Aid
Maggie Jones of the University of Victoria for “The Determinants and Impacts of Historical Treaty-Making in Canada” and “The Legacy of Indian Missions in the United States.”
Scott Miller of the University of Virginia and Yale School of Management for “Building Trust and Connecting Trade: Modeling Economic Networks in the Early American Republic.”
Anne Ruderman of the London School of Economics for “Supplying the Slave Trade: How Europeans Met African Consumer Demand, 1670–1790” and “Slave-Ship Captains and the Royal African Company Monopoly.”
The Association is grateful to the members of the CREH for their work in selecting the award winners. Angela Vossmeyer, Claremont McKenna College chaired the committee. She was assisted by Andrew Jalil, Occidental College, Tracy Dennison, California Institute of Technology, Chris Vickers, Auburn University, Carl Kitchens, Florida State University, and Caitlin Rosenthal, University of California – Berkeley.
