AWARDS AT THE 2015 ECONOMIC HISTORY ASSOCIATION MEETINGS

The Economic History Association announced the 2015 prize winners at the Annual Meeting held recently in Nashville, Tennessee.

Price Fishback, University of Arizona, and Valentina Kachanovskaya, University of Arizona, were awarded the Arthur H. Cole Prize for the outstanding article published in this JOURNAL in the September 2014 to June 2015 issues, for “The Multiplier for Federal Spending in the States During the Great Depression,” published in the March 2015 issue of The Journal of Economic History. The winner was selected by the editorial board.

Andrew Goodman-Bacon received the Allan Nevins Prize for the Best Dissertation in U.S. or Canadian Economic History, for his dissertation “Three Essays in Health Policy Evaluation,” completed at the University of Michigan. Advisor: Martha J. Bailey. (This prize is awarded on behalf of Columbia University Press.)

Jose-Antonio Espin-Sanchez received the Alexander Gerschenkron Prize for the Best Dissertation in non-U.S. or Canadian economic history, for his dissertation “The Illiquidity of Water Markets,” completed at Northwestern University. Advisors: Joel Mokyr, Joesph Ferrie, Regina Grafe, and Robert Porter.

Gregory Clark, University of California–Davis, was awarded the Gyorgy Ranki Biennial Prize for the outstanding book, The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility (Princeton University Press, 2014).

Price Fishback, University of Arizona, was awarded the annual Jonathan Hughes Prize honoring excellence in teaching economic history.

Also announced was the Larry Neal Prize for the best article appearing in Explorations in Economic History awarded to Laura Salisbury, York University, “Selective Migration, Wages, and Occupational Mobility in Nineteenth Century America,” published in the July 2014 issue.

THE 2016 ECONOMIC HISTORY ASSOCIATION MEETINGS OMNI INTERLOCKEN HOTEL BOULDER, CO SEPTEMBER 16–18, 2016 LEE ALSTON, PRESIDENT

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 economies that are currently poor. While there is a great deal of methodological congruence, studying the past usually requires exploiting observational, archival data (perhaps exploiting “natural experiments”), while the study of the present allows for 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. We thus welcome papers wedding economic history and economic development, and papers drawing on insights from law and political science, as well as (naturally) economics and history.

The Program Committee, Alan Dye, Barnard College (chair), together with Edwyna Harris (Monash University), Rick Hornbeck (University of Chicago), Gary Libecap (University of California, Santa Barbara), and Noam Yuchtman (University of California, Berkeley) 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 2015 meeting are not eligible for inclusion in the 2016 program.

Papers and session proposals should be submitted online, with details to follow on the meetings website: http://eh.net/eha/category/meetings/2016-meeting/. The submission system will be available from 1 November 2015 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 2016 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 2016 online on the meetings website. The poster submission system will open on 1 March 2016. The dissertation session, convened by Hoyt Bleakley (University of Michigan) and Petra Moser (New York University), will honor six dissertations completed during the 2015–2016 academic year. The submission deadline is 15 May 2016. The Alexander Gerschenkron and Allan Nevins prizes will be awarded to the best dissertations on non-North American and 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 in size, please supply a download link in an email message. Gerschenkron prize submissions should be emailed to pmoser@stern.nyu.edu and the Nevins prize submissions to hoytb@umich.edu. All submissions will be acknowledged by return email.

EHA GRANT AND FELLOWSHIP AWARDS

The Committee of 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 2015: fellowships to graduate students writing their dissertations; travel/data grants to graduate students in the early stage of research; and Cole Grants to recent Ph.D.s.

Sokoloff Dissertation Fellowships

• James Feigenbaum of Harvard University for “Intergenerational Mobility and Inequality in the Early Twentieth Century.” Advisors: Claudia Goldin and Richard Hornbeck.

• Shameel Ahmad of Yale University for “Trade and Demography in Colonial India.” Advisors: Timothy Guinnane and Naomi Lamoreaux.

EHA Dissertation Fellowships

• Adriane Fresh of Stanford University, Berkeley for “Essays on Elites, Institutions and Development.” Advisors: Steve Haber and Ran Abramitzky.

• Michela Giorcelli of Stanford University for “The Effect of Management and Technology Diffusion on Firm Productivity: Evidence from the US Marshall Plan in Italy.” Advisors: Ran Abramitzky.

• Ariell Zimran of Northwestern University for “Does Sample-Selection Bias Explain the Industrialization Puzzle?” Advisors: Joel Mokyr and Joseph Ferrie.

Data Grants

• Jialu Chen of Yale University for “Institutional Development of Shanghai Native Banks: 1776–1953.” Advisor: Timothy W. Guinnane.

• Felipe Gonzalez of University of California, Berkeley for “Losing Your Dictator: Firms during a Political Transition.” Advisor: Suresh Naidu.

• Nathaniel Lane of Harvard University and Institute for International Economic Studies for “Manufacturing Revolution: Industrialization and the State in Post-War South Korea.” Advisor: Melissa Dell.

• Keith Meyers of University of Arizona for “Economic Consequences of U.S. Atmospheric Nuclear Testing 1951–1963.” Advisor: Price Fishback.

• Natalie Obergruber of ifo Institute - Center for the Economics of Education for “Persistent Inheritance Practices in the Rural German Empire and its Influence on Historical Economic and Social Outcomes.” Advisor: Ludger Woessmann.

• Arianna Ornaghi of Massachusetts Institute of Technology for “Local Election Returns in American Cities 1880–1930.” Advisor: Benjamin Olken.

• Craig Palsson of Yale University for “Government Land Rentals in Haiti, 1927–1950.” Advisor: Timothy W. Guinnane.

• Santiago Pérez of Stanford University for “Economic and Geographic Mobility in 19th Century Argentina.” Advisor: Ran Abramitzky.

• Jakob Schneebacher of Yale University for “Institutions and Social Conflict: Evidence from Switzerland.” Advisor: Timothy W. Guinnane.

• Walter Scott of American University for “Streetcar Suburbs, Mortgage Finance, and the 1890s Housing Cycle.” Advisor: Mary Hansen.

• Eric Smith of Yale University for “Fair Custom, Privilege, and Commerce: The Merchant Court of Lyon in the Seventeenth Century.” Advisor: Francesca Trivellato.

Arthur H. Cole Grants in Aid

• Miguel Morin of University of Cambridge for “Adapting to Workplace Technological Change over the Long Run: Evidence from Longitudinal Data for the United States.”

• Erik Hornung of Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance for “Compulsory Health Insurance and Mortality.”

• Taylor Jaworski of Queen's University for “Economic Policy for Regional Development: A Historical Perspective.”

The Association is grateful to the members of the CREH for their work in selecting the award winners. Jason Long of Wheaton College chaired the committee. He was assisted by William Summerhill, University of California, Los Angeles; Kirsten Wandschneider, Occidental College; Steven Nafziger, Williams College; Nick Ziebarth, University of Iowa; Dan Fetter, Wellesley College; Price Fishback, University of Arizona, ex officio.