Economic History at Yale

 

Yale’s economic history program has a long and illustrious history. At this point we have two economic historians in the economics department, two in the history department, and several other faculty with strong interests in the law school, SOM (Yale’s business school) and other departments.

 

Teaching: We teach economic history courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. All Yale economics PhD students are required to take at least one graduate course in economic history.

 

Seminar: Our seminar meets weekly during term time. Speakers include both Yale faculty and students, and visitors from other institutions. The current schedule can be found here.

 

Faculty The faculty who are most actively involved in the economic history program are (with general research interests):

 

Timothy Guinnane, Philip Golden Bartlett Professor of Economics and History: Demographic and financial history of Western Europe

 

Benjamin Polak, Professor of Economics and Management: Economic theory and economic history

 

Francesca Trivellato, Professor of History: Merchant networks and pre-industrial occupations in Southern Europe

 

Keith Wrightson, Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History: Early modern British history

 

Undergraduate Program: We have a strong undergraduate program in economic history. Students regularly win prizes for senior essays on economic history topics. Recent prize winners include:

Eli Schachar 2007
Arpit Garg 2007
Russell Cecil 2006

Andrè Soldo, 1996

 

Current Visitors:

Alan Dye,  8/07-12/07
Home Institution:  Barnard College, Columbia University
Research Interests: Economic History of Latin America, Industrial Organization and Technical Change

Carol Heim,  1/08-4/08
Home Institution:  University of Massachusetts Amherst
Research Interests: U.S. Urban Growth, Property Development, and Planning; Municipal Fiscal Policy.

Daniel Barbezat,  8/07-12/07
Home Institution:  Amherst College
Research Interests: European Integration, Steel Cartels

 

Current graduate students:

 

  James Fenske (Department of Economics): Land and Conflict in Africa

 

Florian Ploeckl (Department of Economics): Trade and Industrialization in Germany

 

 

Recent past graduate students and current affiliations in alphabetic order:

 

Steven Nafziger (Ph.D. Economics, 2006): Department of Economics, Williams College

Winner of the 2007 Alexander Gerschenkron Prize for Best Dissertation in non-US or Canadian Economic History

 

Claire Priest (J.D. Law, 2001; and Ph.D. History, 2003): Northwestern University Law School

Winner of the 2003 Allan Nevins Prize for Best Dissertation in U.S. or Canadian Economic History

 

Scott Redenius (Ph.D. Economics, 2002): Department of Economics, Bryn Mawr College

 

Carol Shiue (Ph. D. Economics, 1999): Department of Economics, University of Colorado-Boulder

 

Ranjit Dighe (Ph.D. Economics, 1997): Department of Economics, State University of New York-Oswego

 

 

Recent visitors (listed in reverse chronological order, with links to websites)

Ian Keay,  8/06-4/07
Home Institution:  Queen’s University
Research Interests: Growth and Productivity Measurement, Marine Resource Depletion

Howard Bodenhorn,  8/06-4/07
Home Institution:  Lafayette College
Research Interests: Banking in Early America

Susana Martinez Rodriguez,   3/07-4/07
Home Institution:  Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Research Interests: History of Economic Thought 

Christoph Buchheim,  9/06-9/06
Home Institution:  University of Mannheim
Research Interests: Industrial Revolution and Development, Globalization, Economic System Comparison 

Jonas Scherner,  8/05-4/06
Home Institution:  University of Mannheim
Research Interests: The political economy and economic history of Nazi Germany

Tirthankar Roy,  9/04-6/05
Home Institution:  London School of Economics
Research Interests: South Asian economic history

Jochen Streb, 9/04-10/04
Home Institution: University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim

Valery Lazarev, 9/03-5/04
Home Institution:  University of Houston
Research Interests: Russian and Soviet economic history

Noel Maurer, 9/02-6/03
Home Institution:  Harvard Business School
Research Interests: Political foundations of economic growth; effects of political instability on economic growth in Mexico; crony capitalism and credible commitments; the Puerto Rican economy in 1870-1930, before and after the annexation by the United States in 1898.

Mary MacKinnon, 9/01-6/02
Home Institution: McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Research Interests: Immigration to, migration within, and emigration from Canada, 1870-1940; education and schooling in Canada 1870-1970; employment and labour relations at the Canadian Pacific Railroad 1900-1945.

Alan Dye, 1/01-5/01
Home Institution: Barnard College, Columbia University, New York City
Research Interests: Cuban and Latin American economic history

Jochen Streb, 9/98-5/99
Home Institution: University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim

Joshua Rosenbloom, 9/96-5/97
Home Institution: University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Research Interests: U.S. economic history