81st Annual Economic History Association Meeting
October 29-31, 2021
Hilton El Conquistador Resort
Tucson, Arizona
Program Overview
Please Click Here for the PDF Program
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NOTE: If you have registered as a virtual attendee and have not received the password, please check your spam folder, and if you are still missing it, please reach out to Jeremy Land (jeremy.land@helsinki.fi).
Please Click Here for the Errata Sheet
Friday, October 29, 2021 (All times are Arizona time GMT-7)
8am-12pm: Tours
8am-12pm: EHA Board of Trustees Meeting
10am: Poster Session Setup
10am-12pm: Job Market Workshop
12:45-5:00pm: Poster Session
1-2:30pm: Concurrent Sessions
2:30-3pm: Coffee Break
3-4:30pm: Concurrent Sessions
5-6:30pm: Plenary Session
7-8:30pm: Reception
8:30-10pm: Graduate Student Dinner
Saturday, October 30, 2021
6:45-8am: Historians and Teachers Breakfasts
8:30am-5:15pm: Poster Session
8:30-10am: Concurrent Sessions
10-10:30am: Coffee Break
10:30-12pm: Concurrent Sessions
12-1:30pm: Women’s Lunch
1:30-2:30pm: Business Meeting
2:45-4:45pm: Dissertation Session
4:45pm-5:15pm: Coffee Break
5:15pm-6:30pm: Presidential Address
6:30-7:30pm: Cocktail Reception
7:30-9:30pm: Banquet and Awards
9:45-Midnight: Presidential Party
Sunday, October 31, 2021
7-8:30am: Full Buffet Breakfast (sponsored by Global Financial Data)
8:30-10am: Concurrent Sessions
10-10:30am: Coffee Break
10:30-12pm: Concurrent Sessions
Noon: Conference Ends
Detailed Schedule
Friday, October 29
8:00am-12:00pm:
Tour 1 – Taste of Tucson Downtown Food Tour
9:00am-12:00pm:
Tour 2 – Tohono Chul Botanical Garden
10:00am-12:00pm:
Job Market Workshop
Location: Turquoise I
Conveners: Richard Hornbeck (University of Chicago) and Michela Giorcelli (University of California, Los Angeles)
12:45-5:00pm:
Poster Session
Location: Turquoise III
1:00-2:30pm:
Session 1: Early Institutional Development
Video: https://youtu.be/tRY77Vxpq4g
Room: Turquoise I
Chair: Steven Nafziger (Williams College)
Mattia Bertazzini (University of Oxford), Robert C. Allen (NYU Abu Dhabi), Leander Heldring (Northwestern University), “The Economic Origins of Government”
Discussant: Noel Johnson (George Mason University)
Pier Paolo Creanza (Princeton), “Institutions, trade and growth: the ancient case of proxenia”
Discussant: Sheilagh Ogilvie (University of Oxford)
Antonio Iodice (University of Exeter/University of Genoa), “Innovation in disguise: GA rules and institutional development in the Republic of Genoa (1590-1700)”
Discussant: Jari Eloranta (University of Helsinki)
1:00-2:30pm:
Session 2: Historical Labor Markets
Video: https://youtu.be/WnHr20shIJA
Room: Turquoise II
Chair: Todd Neumann (University of Arizona)
Michael Poyker (University of Nottingham), Riccardo Marchingiglio (Analysis Group), “The Economics of Gender-Specific Minimum-Wage Legislation”
Discussant: Joyce Burnett (Wabash College)
Judy Zara Stephenson (University College London), Meredith Paker (University of Oxford), Patrick Wallis (London School of Economics), “Monopsony in early modern labor markets”
Discussant: Suresh Naidu (New York University)
Lionel Kesztenbaum (INED, PSE), Victor Gay (TSE), “Collateral Damage? How World War One Changed the Way Women Work”
Discussant: Liz Cascio (Dartmouth College)
1:00-2:30pm:
Section 3: Meritocratic Reforms and Elites
Video: https://youtu.be/OOjBIUQFdhg
Room: Agave
Chair: Joshua Rosenbloom (Iowa State University)
Santiago Perez (UC Davis), Diana Moreira (UC Davis), “Who Benefits from Meritocracy?”
Discussant: Guo Xu (University of California, Berkeley)
Jean Lacroix (University of Paris-Saclay ), Toke Aidt (University of Cambridge), Pierre-Guillaume Méon (Université Libre de Bruxelles), “The Origins of Elite Persistence: Evidence from Political Purges in post-World War II France”
Discussant: Jean Laurent Rosenthal (California Institute of Technology)
Rowena Gray (UC Merced) Raymond Kim (UC Merced), “Making a Police Officer: Police Quality After the Spoils System in the Urban U.S.”
Discussant: Rob Gillezeau (University of Victoria)
2:30-3:00pm:
Coffee Break
3:00-4:30pm:
Session 4: The Great Depression and its Legacies
Video: https://youtu.be/lZA9tYkNhAI
Room: Turquoise I
Chair: Mary Rodgers (State University of New York-Oswego)
Vellore Arthi (UC Irvine), Katherine Eriksson (UC Davis), Gary Richardson (UC Irvine), “Labor Market Scarring in the Very Long Run: Evidence from Large-Scale Linked Microdata”
Discussant: Katherine Shester (Washington and Lee University)
Sarah Quincy (Vanderbilt), “Income Shocks and Housing Spillovers: Evidence from the World War I Veterans’ Bonus”
Discussant: Dan Fetter (Stanford University)
Gabriel Mathy (American University), Vasudeva Ramaswamy (American University), “The Huey Long Spending Program in Louisiana: Estimating Fiscal Multipliers during the Great Depression”
Discussant: Price Fishback (University of Arizona)
3:00-4:30pm:
Session 5: Mortality Risk and Insurance
Video: https://youtu.be/ZhDOwDQKCZg
Room: Turquoise II
Chair: Walker Hanlon (Northwestern University)
Gertjan Verdickt (KU Leuven), Gustavo Cortes (Warrington College of Business), “Did the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic kill the US Life Insurance Industry?”
Discussant: Jonathan Rose (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago)
Philipp Jaeger (RWI-Leibniz Institute), “Can Pensions Save Lives? Evidence from the Introduction of Old-Age Assistance in the UK”
Discussant: Peter Lindert (University of California, Davis)
Ezra Gabriel Goldstein (Florida State) “The Long-Run Effect of Parental Death: Evidence from Mining Accidents”
Discussant: Erin Troland (Federal Reserve Board of Governors)
3:00-4:30pm:
Session 6: American Slavery and its Legacies
Video: https://youtu.be/TwsiLO0lOqc
Room: Agave
Chair: Mindy Miller (Virginia Tech University)
C. Hoyt Bleakley (University of Michigan), Paul Rhode (University of Michigan), “The Economic Effects of American Slavery, Redux: Tests at the Border”
Discussant: Gavin Wright (Stanford University)
Warren C. Whatley (University of Michigan), Nina Banks (Bucknell), “A Nation of Laws, And Race Laws”
Discussant: Jonathan Pritchett (Tulane University)
John Majewski (UC Santa Barbara) “Creative Capacity in a Slave Economy: Invention and Innovation in Southern Cities before the Civil War”
Discussant: Lisa Cook (Michigan State University)
5:00-6:30pm:
Plenary Session
Video: https://youtu.be/OA46Tl-rXIQ
Room: Presidio Ballroom
Chair: John Wallis (University of Maryland)
Woody Powell (Stanford University) and Robert Gibbons (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
“Rules in Organizations?! Perspectives from Economics and Sociology (and Political Science)”
7:00-8:30pm:
Reception
Location: Last Territory
8:30-10:00pm:
Graduate Student Dinner
Location: Sundance Courtyard
Saturday, October 30
6:45-8:00am:
Historians Breakfast
Room: Sonoran
Speaker: Ranjit Dighe (State University of New York-Oswego)
Teachers Breakfast
Room: Santa Rita
Speaker: Anne McCants (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
12:45-5:00pm:
Poster Session
Location: Turquoise III
8:30am-10:00am:
Session 7: Protectionism and its Consequences
Video: https://youtu.be/BnMHIk2-898
Room: Turquoise I
Chair: David Mitch (UMBC)
Stephen Redding (Princeton University), Stephen Heblich (University of Toronto), Yanos Zylberberg (University of Bristol), “Distributional Consequences of Trade: Evidence from the Corn Laws”
Discussant: Douglas Irwin (Dartmouth College)
Kris James Mitchener (Santa Clara University), Kirsten Wandschneider (University of Vienna), Kevin O’Rourke (NYU – Abu Dhabi), “The Smoot-Hawley Trade War”
Discussant: Christopher Meissner (University of California, Davis)
Vinzent Ostermeyer (Lund University), “Winners and Losers: The Asymmetric Impact of Tariff Protection on Swedish Firms in the Late 19th-Century”
Discussant: Kilian Rieder (Osterreichische Nationalbank and CEPR)
8:30am-10:00am:
Session 8: Agriculture, Institutions and Growth
Video: https://youtu.be/du8X45nJd0Y
Room: Turquoise II
Chair: Paul Rhode (University of Michigan)
Itzchak Raz (Hebrew University ), “Learning is Caring: Soil Heterogeneity, Social Learning and the Formation of Close-knit Communities”
Discussant: Pat Testa (Tulane University)
Aparna Howlader (University of Rhode Island), “The Role of Local Environmental Institutions in Climate Adaptation: Evidence from Conservation Districts in the Great Plains”
Discussant: Eric Edwards (North Carolina State University)
Melinda Miller (Virginia Tech), Matthew T. Gregg (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis), “A New Institutional History of Allotment: Evidence from the Pine Ridge Reservation, 1904-1937”
Discussant: Dustin Frye (Vassar College)
8:30am-10:00am:
Session 9: Racial Segregation and the Civil Rights Movement
Video: https://youtu.be/mftsszFPFV4
Room: Agave
Chair: Simone Wegge (City University of New York)
D. Mark Anderson (Montana State), Kerwin Kofi Charles (Yale SOM), Daniel I. Rees (University of Colorado Denver), “The Federal Effort to Desegregate Southern Hospitals and the Black-White Infant Mortality Gap”
Discussant: Edson Severini (Carnegie Mellon University)
Guo Xu (UC Berkeley, Haas), Abhay Aneja (UC Berkeley, School of Law), “The Costs of Employment Segregation: Evidence from the Federal Government under Woodrow Wilson”
Discussant: Dan Aaronson (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago)
Andreas Ferrara (University of Pittsburgh), Marco Tabellini (HBS), “World War II and the Roots of the Civil Rights Movement”
Discussant: John Parman (College of William and Mary)
10:00-10:30am:
Coffee Break
10:30-am-12:00pm:
Session 10: On the Importance of Institutions
Room: Turquoise I
Chair: Peter Lindert (University of California, Davis)
Deirdre McCloskey (University of Illinois at Chicago), “Institutions are Not Fundamental”
Discussant: Barry Weingast (Stanford University)
Anne McCants (MIT), Daniel Seligson (Independent Scholar), “Nature and Culture in Economic History”
Discussant: Joel Mokyr (Northwestern University)
Lee J. Alston (Indiana University), Marie Duggan (Keene State College), Julio Ramos (Penn State University), “Spanish Missions and their Impact on Native Americans in the Southwest and California”
Discussant: Ann Carlos (University of Colorado)
10:30-am-12:00pm:
Session 11: Financial Development
Video: https://youtu.be/_AXi5eC9Kmk
Room: Turquoise II
Chair: Christopher Meissner (University of California, Davis)
Amanda Gregg (Middlebury College), Caroline Fohlin (Emory University), “Financing Industrialization in Russia and Germany”
Discussant: Matthew Jaremski (Utah State University)
Chenzi Xu (Stanford University ), He Yang (Amazon), “ Monetizing the Economy: National Banks and Local Economic Development”
Discussant: Mark Carlson (Federal Reserve Board of Governors)
Sasha Indarte (Wharton), “Bad News Bankers: Underwriter Reputation and Contagion in Pre-1914 Sovereign Debt Markets”
Discussant: Kris Michener (Santa Clara University)
10:30-am-12:00pm:
Session 12: Intergenerational Mobility and Assortative Mating
Video: https://youtu.be/kwGcJxKTObw
Room: Agave
Chair: Simone Wegge (City University of New York)
Gregory Clark (UC Davis), Neil Cummins (London School of Economics), “Assortative Mating and Intergenerational Mobility, England, 1837-2020”
Discussant: Jose Espin-Sanchez (Yale University)
Jennifer Withrow (U.S. Census Bureau), “Farm Crisis and Marriageable Men: Changes in Farm Tenure Mobility and Family Formation during the US Farm Crisis of the 1920s and 1930s”
Discussant: Carl Kitchens (Florida State University)
Matthew Curtis (UC Davis), “The her in inheritance: marriage and mobility in Quebec 1800-1970”
Discussant: Laura Salisbury (York University)
12-1:30pm:
Women’s Lunch
Location: Poolside Lawn
1:30-2:30pm:
Business Meeting
Video: https://youtu.be/QqR7tjC7TD0
Location: Presidio Ballroom
2:45-4:45pm:
Dissertation Session
Video: https://youtu.be/TGAspwEwcq0
Location: Presidio Ballroom
Gerschenkron Prize
The Alexander Gerschenkron Prize is awarded for the best dissertation in the economic history of an area outside of the United States or Canada completed during the preceding year.
Chair and Convener: Steven Nafziger (Williams College)
Benjamin Milner (PhD: University of British Columbia, Current: University of Alberta)
Essays on British Labour Markets During the Second Industrial Revolution
Meredith Paker (PhD: University of Oxford, Current: University of Oxford)
A Problem of Industries and Regions: Unemployment and Structural Change in Britain During the Interwar Years and 1980s
Emiliano Travieso (PhD: University of Cambridge, Current: Carlos III University of Madrid)
Resources, Environment, and Rural Development in Uruguay, 1779-1913
Nevins Prize
The Allan Nevins Prize in American Economic History is awarded annually by the Economic History Association on behalf of Columbia University Press for the best dissertation in U.S. or Canadian economic history completed during the previous year.
Chair and Convener: Martha Olney (University of California, Berkeley)
Brian Marein (PhD: University of Colorado, Current: University of Toronto)
The Economic Development of Puerto Rico after United States Annexation
Tianyi Wang (PhD: University of Pittsburgh, Current: Princeton University)
Technology, Media, and Political Change
Yiling Zhao (PhD: Northwestern University, Current: Peking University)
Essays in Economic History of American Higher Education
4:45pm-5:15pm:
Coffee Break
5:15pm-6:30pm:
Presidential Address
Video: https://youtu.be/uTDUYBCs6tY
Room: Presidio Ballroom
Convener: Price Fishback (University of Arizona)
EHA President: John Wallis (University of Maryland)
An Alternative Institutional approach to Rules, Organizations, and Development
6:30-7:30pm:
Cocktail Reception
Location: Turquoise Foyer
7:30-9:30pm:
Banquet and Awards
Room: Presidio Ballroom
9:45-Midnight:
Presidential Party
Room: Sundance Courtyard
Sunday, October 31
7:00-8:30am:
Full Buffet Breakfast (Sponsored by Global Financial Data)
Room: Presidio Ballroom
8:30-10:00am:
Session 13: Institutions and Chinese Development
Video: https://youtu.be/v31XPtJ7DgA
Room: Turquoise I
Chair: John Brown (Clark University)
Xin Nong (University of Texas at Austin), “Informal Succession Institutions and Autocratic Survival: Evidence from Ancient China”
Discussant: Melanie Xue (London School of Economics)
Tuan-Hwee Sng (National University of Singapore), Jiahua Che (China Europe International Business School), John K.-H. Quah (Johns Hopkins University), “Aristocrats and Bureaucrats”
Discussant: Jared Rubin (Chapman University)
Beatriz Simon-Yarza (University of Navarra), “The Changing Wheels Hypothesis. Corruption and Development: Evidence from China”
Discussant: Carol Shiue (University of Colorado)
8:30-10:00am:
Session 14: Origins of Innovation
Video: https://youtu.be/cf0u7U8ko-c
Room: Turquoise II
Chair: Geoff Clarke (Brandeis University)
Shmuel San (NYU), “Labor Supply and Directed Technical Change: Evidence from the Abrogation of the Bracero Program in 1964”
Discussant: Reka Juhasz (Columbia University)
Felix Poege (Max Planck Institute), “Competition and Innovation: The Breakup of IG Farben”
Discussant: Walker Hanlon (New York University)
Jinlin Wei (Warwick), “Financial development and patents during the First Industrial Revolution: England and Wales”
Discussant: Elisabeth Perlman (U.S. Census Bureau)
8:30-10:00am:
Session 15: Violence and Coercion
Room: Agave
Chair: Greg Niemesh (Miami University)
Felix S.F. Schaff (London School of Economics), “Warfare and Economic Inequality: Evidence from Preindustrial Germany (c. 1400-1800)”
Discussant: Philip Hoffman (California Institute of Technology)
Michiel De Haas (Wageningen University), Bram van Besouw (Erasmus University), “Coercion or adaptation? Expanding African commodity exports during the Great Depression”
Discussant: Belinda Archibong (Barnard College)
Saumitra Jha (Stanford), Julia Cage (Sciences Po), Pauline Grosjean (UNSW), “Heroes and Villains: The Effects of Combat Heroism on Autocratic Values and Nazi Collaboration in France”
Discussant: Greg Niemesh (Miami University)
10:00-10:30am:
Coffee Break
10:30am-12:00pm:
Session 16: Migration and its Effects
Video: https://youtu.be/bJ7ECFXMAhg
Room: Turquoise I
Chair: Bryan Stuart (George Washington University)
Gianluca Russo (University of Pompeu Fabra), Nicola Fontana (London School of Economics), Marco Manacorda (Queen Mary University) Marco Tabellini (Harvard University), “Emigration and Economic Development: Evidence from the Italian Mass Migration”
Discussant: Bryan Stuart (George Washington University)
Vasily Rusanov (NYU), “Internal Migration and the Diffusion of Schooling in the US”
Discussant: Andreas Ferrara (University of Pittsburgh)
Alexander Persaud (U of Richmond), “The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire’s Money Orders”
Discussant: Bryan Stuart (George Washington University)
10:30am-12:00pm:
Session 17: Urbanization and Social Change
Video: https://youtu.be/InCRNOhNloI
Room: Turquoise II
Chair: Price Fishback (University of Arizona)
Ronan Lyons (Trinity College Dublin), Alan de Bromhead (Queen’s University Belfast), “Rooted to the Soil: Social Housing and Population in Ireland since 1911”
Discussant: Cormac O’Grada (University College Dublin)
John Brown (Clark University), David Cuberes (Clark University), “The Birth and Persistence of Cities: First and Second Nature in Oklahoma’s Urban Development”
Discussant: Hoyt Bleakley (University of Michigan)
Eric Melander (University of Namur), “Transportation Technology, Individual Mobility and Social Mobilization”
Discussant: Dan Bogart (University of California, Irvine)
10:30am-12:00pm:
Session 18: Technology Adoption: Causes and Consequences
Video: https://youtu.be/8Ce2wSXM3Lw
Room: Agave
Chair: Michael Haupert (University of Wisconsin, La Crosse)
Bjoern Brey (University of Nottingham), “The long-run gains from the early adoption of electricity”
Discussant: Jeremy Atack (Vanderbilt University)
Michela Giorcelli (UCLA), Bo Li (Tsinghua University), “Technology Transfer and Early Industrial Development: Evidence from the Sino-Soviet Alliance”
Discussant: Richard Hornbeck (University of Chicago)
Michael Rubens (KU Leuven/UCLA), “Management, Productivity, and Technology Choices: Evidence from U.S. Mining Schools”
Discussant: Michael Andrews (UMBC)
Conference Ends