“Political Economy and Economic History”

Politics has a massive impact on economic outcomes. States redistribute wealth, make up for market failures, and enact policies that can devastate an economy or promote long run growth. They also provide the essential public goods of security, the rule of law, and a means of exchange. Without these, life is brutal and trade little more than barter. But what determines the laws and regulations that states adopt and the public goods they furnish? How do states arise in the first place and gain the capacity to tax? What shapes the changes in their policies and their expenditures over time? Can we distinguish the political incentives that encourage good policies rather than tragic ones? Do the answers lie with endowments, the distribution of wealth, or deeply rooted institutions? Or are they to be sought in culture and the guiding hand of history?

The Program Committee (John Wallis, University of Maryland (chair), together with Dan Bogart, Karen Clay, and Tracy Dennison) welcomes submissions on ALL subjects in economic history, though some preference will be given to papers that specifically fit the theme. 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 2013 meeting are not eligible for inclusion in the 2014 program.

Papers and session proposals should be submitted online, with details to follow on the meetings website: http://www.eh.net/eha/meetings. The submission system will be available from November 1, 2013 onward. Paper proposals should include a 3–5 page précis and a 150-word abstract suitable for publication in The Journal of Economic History. Papers should be submitted by 31 January, 2014 to ensure consideration.

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 2014 online: https://www.eh.net/eha/node/add/posters. The poster submission system will open on March 1, 2014. The dissertation session, convened by Leah Platt Boustan (UCLA) and Mauricio Drelichman (University of British Columbia), will honor six dissertations completed during the 2013–2014 academic year. The submission deadline is June 11, 2014. The Alexander Gerschenkron and Allan Nevins prizes will be awarded to the best dissertations on non-North American and North American topics respectively.

For further information, check http://eh.net/eha/meetings/2014-meeting, which also includes information on travel options to the Columbus area; or contact Meetings Coordinator Jari Eloranta at elorantaj@appstate.edu.

Sokoloff Fellowship Recipients

• Amanda Gregg of Yale University for “Commercial Law, Property Rights, and Industrialization in Late Imperial Russia.” Advisor, Timothy Guinnane.

• Anthony Wray of Northwestern University for “Childhood Illness and Occupational Choice in London, 1870–1911.” Advisor, Joel Mokyr.

Dissertation Fellowship Recipients

• Cihan Artunc of Yale University for “The Role of Legal and Economic Institutions in the Development of the Early Modern Ottoman Empire.” Advisor, Timothy Guinnane.

• Richard Baker of Boston University for “Public Schooling and Corporate Regulation: Essays on Institutions of Development in the Early Twentieth-Century United States.” Advisor, Robert Margo.

• Robin Winkler of Oxford University for “Household Consumption in Interwar Germany, 1927–37.” Advisor, Oliver Grant.

Exploratory Grant Recipients

• Alex Hollingsworth of University of Arizona for “The Impact of Sanitaria on Pulmonary Tuberculosis Mortality: Evidence from North Carolina, 1932–1940.” Advisor, Price Fishback.

• Esther Sahle of London School of Economics for “The Competitive Edge of the Reliable Friends? Quaker Contract Enforcement, c.1660–1800'” Advisor, Patrick Wallis.

• Tim Larsen of University of Colorado for “Confederate Deaths and the Development of the New South.” Advisors, Murat Iyigun and Lee Alston.

• Anne Ruderman of Yale University for “Supplying the Slave Trade: How Europeans Met African Demand for European Manufactured Products, Commodities, and Re-Exports, 1670–1790.” Advisor, Naomi Lamoreaux.

• Elizabeth Perlman of Boston University for “Geography of Innovation Patents in Early America.” Advisor, Robert Margo.

• Megan Fasules of American University for “The Impact of Medicare on Bankruptcy.” Advisor, Mary Hansen.

• Mike Mathies of University of Arizona for “Mining Booms and Busts: New Evidence on the Consequences of Mining in the United States, 1870–2010.” Advisor, Price Fishback.

• Aaron Honsowetz of George Mason University for “The 1866 Post Act: Federal Preemption to Improve Competition Within the United States Telegraph Market.” Advisor, John Nye.

• Claire Brennecke of Yale University for “Information Acquisition and Mercantile Credit Reporting in the Nineteenth-Century United States.” Advisor, Gary Gorton.

• Glenda Oskar of University of California, Berkeley for “Corporate Finance and the San Francisco Mining Share Market, 1860–1877.” Advisor, Benjamin Hermalin.

• Mary Elizabeth Cox of Oxford University for “Hunger Games: Or How The Allied Blockade in World War I Deprived German Children of Nutrition, and Allied Food Aid Subsequently Saved Them.” Advisor, Deborah Oxley.

• Matthew Parker of St. Louis University for “The Battle of Meloria (1284) as Turning Point for Pisan Commercial Practices.” Advisor, Thomas F. Madden.