This paper presents the first reconstruction of income inequality in Italy during the so-called "Golden Age", by building Dynamic Social Tables (DSTs) from 1951 to 1973. The resulting estimates show increasing income inequality between 1951 and 1961 - that is, during the so-called "Economic...

We estimate daily wage rates for skilled and unskilled construction workers and agricultural laborers in Switzerland from 1750 to 1860, a period of profound political and economic transformations. Our analysis is based on 17,700 newly collected wage quotes from primary sources and 23,300 price...

The Hard Steps model is applied to argue that the Industrial Revolution (IR) heralded a terminal phase of human existence. Assuming six hard steps, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov method is used to pinpoint the start of the IR to ≈ year 1700. Once these hard steps were cleared, the global economy...

How did the US become a land of opportunity? Previous historical research on intergenerational mobility has focused on father-son income correlations, masking the role of mothers. We introduce a new mobility measure that incorporates both parents’ human capital, develop a latent variable...

We define applied economic history as the systematic use of historical reasoning to address economic policy problems. Building on work in applied history, we argue that economic history contributes to policy not by offering ready-made lessons, but by disciplining the narratives and analogies...

This working paper investigates the tension between market forces and welfare policies by applying Karl Polanyi's "double movement" study to pre- and posttransformation Poland. The analysis aims at providing a comprehensive perspective on how poverty relief policies impacted and have been...

This paper studies how and why anti-Irish sentiment in 19th century England spills over onto jury decisions at London’s Old Bailey Central Criminal Court. We classify the (perceived) ethnicity of courtroom participants according to whether they have distinctly Irish or English surnames based...

This paper studies how and why anti-Irish sentiment in 19th century England spills over onto jury decisions at London's Old Bailey Central Criminal Court. We classify the (perceived) ethnicity of courtroom participants according to whether they have distinctly Irish or English surnames based on...

This paper examines how applied history can contribute to policymaking when understood as a way of structuring judgement under uncertainty rather than as a source of policy lessons or predictions. It argues that economic history is particularly well suited to facilitating this role because it...

This paper studies how and why anti-Irish sentiment in 19th century England spills over onto jury decisions at London’s Old Bailey Central Criminal Court. We classify the (perceived) ethnicity of courtroom participants according to whether they have distinctly Irish or English surnames based...

We digitize and analyze the near-universe of National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) membership records and link them to population and industrial censuses. Four findings emerge. First, as the party expanded, its membership came to resemble the broader population more closely in...

This paper develops a functional and historical appraisal of finance. We start by proposing a taxonomy of three core, theory-driven functions of the financial system - intermediation, entrepreneurial, and accumulative - that coevolve throughout the history of capitalism. We build an empirical...

Im Jahr 2025 dürfte die Wirtschaftsleistung in Ostdeutschland (mit Berlin) um 0,4 % und damit etwas stärker als in Deutschland insgesamt zulegen. In Sachsen dürfte das Bruttoinlandsprodukt wohl kaum mehr als stagnieren (+0,1 %). Im Jahr 2026 entfalten zwar die geplanten Fiskalmaßnahmen ihre...

Das ifo Geschäftsklima Ostdeutschland basiert auf ca. 1 700 monatlichen Meldungen von Unternehmen, von denen ca. 500 aus Sachsen stammen. Die Befragungsteilnehmer*innen kommen aus dem Verarbeitenden Gewerbe, dem Dienstleistungssektor, dem Handel und dem Bauhauptgewerbe. Die Unternehmen werden...

Did Southern elites' economic losses from abolition translate into diminished political influence? Using novel census-linked data on state lawmakers across four slave-owning and two Northern states (1850-1880), we document a striking paradox: despite the massive wealth shock of emancipation, the...

Das ifo Geschäftsklima Ostdeutschland basiert auf ca. 1700 monatlichen Meldungen von Unternehmen, von denen ca. 500 aus Sachsen stammen. Die Befragungsteilnehmer*innen kommen aus dem Verarbeitenden Gewerbe, dem Dienstleistungssektor, dem Handel und dem Bauhauptgewerbe. Die Unternehmen werden...

Did Southern elites' economic losses from abolition translate into diminished political influence? Using novel census-linked data on state lawmakers across four slave-owning and two Northern states (1850-1880), we document a striking paradox: despite the massive wealth shock of emancipation, the...

We digitize and analyze the near-universe of National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) membership records and link them to population and industrial censuses. Four findings emerge. First, as the party expanded, its membership came to resemble the broader population more closely in...

Ever since Smith and Marx there has been a debate about the impact of industrialization on the content of work. While shifts in the occupational structure associated with industrialization are well charted, we lack systematic evidence on the tasks workers actually performed during this period of...

History shows militarily dominant states that pursue imperialism, relying on their might to extort resources from weaker states. Occasionally, the latter revolt and the dominant state suffers some casualties. This paper explores imperialism along steady-growth paths. If the dominant state...

On December 3, 2024, Michael Hudson met with capital-as-power researchers Jonathan Nitzan, Tim Di Muzio, and Blair Fix to discuss the intersections between their two lines of research. What follows is a transcript of the conversation.

Seit der globalen Finanzkrise 2008/09 ist Industriepolitik wieder zum zentralen Thema der wirtschaftspolitischen Diskussionen in Deutschland und auf EU-Ebene geworden. Traditionelle Argumente, wie die Aufrechterhaltung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit, die strategische Positionierung im globalen...

This chapter examines the role of religion in economic development, both historically and today. Religion's influence varies globally, with high religiosity in countries like Pakistan and low rates in China. Despite declines in some Western countries, religion remains influential worldwide, with...