Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association, in Boulder, Colorado September 16-18, 2016
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. 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 January 31, 2016 to ensure consideration. Click here to submit a paper or session.
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 May 21, 2016 online on the meetings website. The poster submission system will open on March 1, 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 May 15, 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.