Queen's University Belfast - Everything Economic History

Mattia Bertazzini What happens when you farm a desert? With Mattia Bertazzini Parts of North Africa are surprisingly fertile, particular around Tunisia and Libya. In the case of the latter, Italy saw a great opportunity to join the colonial bandwagon in the early 20th century and learned that successful ventures require more than just state money. Mattia Bertazzini (Nottingham) joins Lloyd and And...

Where should you set up a new town? With Kerstin Enflo Certain places seem to have been around ‘forever’. But planned towns are not a new phenomenon. And in early modern Sweden, the royal family decided that planned towns were the way to economic success. Kerstin Enflo (Lund) chats with Andrew and Lloyd about this programme and discusses whether or not the Swedish monarchs were on to a winner. htt...

How much is care actually worth? With Jane Humphries Can you put a value on care? How much does a homemaker add to an economy? And why isn’t this considered in economic thought? Andrew and Lloyd are joined by Jane Humphries to answer all of this and more in this fascinating look at early-modern England. Lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BoY9W9rZSE

Where should you patent an invention? With Chris Colvin In another in-person episode, Andrew and Lloyd are joined by Chris Colvin (QUB) to talk about patents. We compare the Dutch and British systems to see which is best, and some of the lessons that modern policymakers might learn about controlling innovation nowadays. Papers: https://ceph.ie/article-re/financing-innovation-the-role-of-patent-exa...

How do you study the global south? With Ewout Frankema From “Third World” to “Global South”, academia struggles to study large parts of the world with delicacy or accuracy. One of the challenges faced by researchers is assessing the economic impact of colonialism, and it is often the scapegoat for the divergence in growth between North and South. But in this episode, Andrew and Lloyd are joined by...

Season 3, Episode 8. How do you make a home in Alaska? With Ann Carlos Alaska is the largest state in the United States of America, with a reputation for remoteness, cold weather, and large moose. Yet despite these disadvantages, the indigenous population retains a strong sense of community and cooperation that endures to this day. Ann Carlos (UC Boulder) chats with Andrew and Lloyd and explores l...

Everything Economic History. Season 3, Episode 7. How does political violence affect the stock market? With Christopher Hartwell Political violence is nothing new, but it can be tough to measure it’s impact on the economy. Christopher Hartwell (Kozminski University) talks Andrew and Lloyd through some new ways to measure its impact, using the case of Tsarist Russia as an example. Paper: https://do...

Everything Economic History, Season 3, Episode 6. Marc Deloof How does a King sell a state? With Marc Deloof The Belgian atrocities in the Congo are well known and rightly condemned. But what happened before it became a colony? How did King Leopold attract investment to an area that, prior to the rubber boom, had little to offer? Andrew and Lloyd sit down with Marc Deloof (University of Antwerp) t...

Season 3, Episode 5. So you want to be an economic historian? With Áine Doran Economic history is in a good place. There’s a growing number of new researchers emerging, and people are slowly realising how useful it can be. But what is it like on the front line? Andrew and Lloyd sit down with Áine Doran (UU) for a “state of the nation”, seeing how the discipline is faring and what the future might...

How do you build a business in a new nation? With Frank Barry With the War of Independence and the Civil War behind it, 1920s Ireland was faced with opportunities for growth, but it hesitated about how best to go about it. Andrew and Lloyd are joined by Frank Barry (TCD), who walks them through how Ireland built its businesses in the first half of the twentieth century, and asks whether everything...

Judy Stephenson How do you win at Monopsony? With Judy Stephenson No, that title isn’t a typo! This week, Andrew and Lloyd are joined by returning guest Judy Stephenson (UCL) to talk about monopsony power in early modern Britain, and ask who the real winners and losers were in these early labour markets. https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13346

Everything Economic History, Season 3, Episode 2. Johan Fourie How do you get people to listen to an economics podcast? With Johan Fourie Johan Fourie is one of South Africa’s leading economic historians, whose podcast, blog and writing influence the public and policy in equal measure. In this special, in-person episode, Andrew and Lloyd sit down with him to talk about policymaking, economic histo...

Everything Economic History, Season 3, Episode 1. The CEO - What does it take to lead a company? With Michael Aldous and John Turner Hot off the back of their new book The CEO, The Rise and Fall of Britain's Captains of Industry, Michael Aldous and John Turner (QUB) join Andrew and Lloyd to talk about corporate leadership and how an individual can change the fate of a company. https://www.cambridg...

Episode 8: How do you run an Egyptian Business? With Mohamed Saleh Egypt’s history stretches back thousands of years, and Cleopatra is closer to us than she was to the construction of the pyramids. However, since we only had an hour, Andrew and Lloyd talked with Mohamed Saleh (LSE) about Egyptian businesses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and tried to unpick the web of business manageme...

Episode 7: How did the Great Migration influence US elections? With Vicky Fouka In an election year in the United States, there is no better time to talk about American history. Andrew and Lloyd sat down with Vicky Fouka (Stanford University) to discuss the second Great Migration and how it affected American politics in the 20th Century. Everything Economic History is the podcast of the Centre for...

Episode 6: How do you found a brand new nation? With Leigh Gardner Liberia stands as a fascinating case study of what happens if a new nation is established, seemingly out of the blue. Andrew and Lloyd are joined by Leigh Gardner (LSE) to talk about what led to the foundation of this west-Africa country and its economic fortunes in the 19th and 20th centuries. Link to book: https://www.cambridge.o...

Will Everything Be Alright? New Year Special! With Ronan Lyons, Barra Roantree, John Turner and Gaia Narciso. 2024 was a year of some highs and many lows across the globe. But how has Ireland faired? What can economic history tell us about Ireland's performance during troubled or tumultuous times? And what should policymakers bear in mind over the next 12 months? To answer this, Andrew is joined b...

How do you raise a Celtic Tiger? With Seán Kenny Season 2, Episode 5 - The Podcast of the Centre for Economics, Policy and History (CEPH)" Ireland’s economic growth in the twentieth century is nothing short of miraculous. But how did this happen, and why wasn’t it even across the island? Joining Andrew and Lloyd is Seán Kenny (UCC, Lund) who explains Ireland’s wealth, its divide, and what might ha...

Episode 4: How does a world get rich? With Mark Koyama In this episode, Andrew and Lloyd don the hats of podcast grifters and talk about wealth. However, we are not selling bitcoin or panning for gold, but instead talking about how countries become wealthy and why some areas are richer than others. To do this, we sit down with Mark Koyama (George Mason University) and put the interest in compound...

Episode 3: How do you re-write a history of North America? With Ann Carlos As the character Ron Swanson once declared in the TV show Parks and Recreation “History began on July 4th 1776. Everything before that was a mistake”. Of course, this is nonsense, but what was the economic history of America before and during European settlement? To find out, Andrew and Lloyd are joined by Ann Carlos (Unive...

Episode 2: How has Africa’s economy developed? With Ellen Hillbom and Erik Green In this episode, Andrew and Lloyd sit down with Ellen Hillbom and Erik Green (Lund University) and tackle a millennium of African Economic history in approximately 50 minutes. They take a step back from the doom-and-gloom attitudes towards the continent that were fostered in the 1990s, and instead present a more compl...

Episode 1: Did Reconstruction save the USA? With Richard Grossman In the first episode of our brand new season, Andrew and Lloyd sit down with Richard Grossman (Wesleyan University) and discuss reconstruction in the United States of America. Was it a policy success story, and if not, why not? What could have been done to smooth the transition from war-riven slave-state to modern America?

Episode 7: Why can’t you take a train to Donegal? With Alan Fernihough Andrew and Lloyd were stuck on Irish trains recently, and wondered why the Irish rail system has such a bad reputation. We sat down with Alan Fernihough (Queen’s University Belfast) to discuss the history of Irish rail transport and answer once and for all why there is no train to Donegal. Link to paper: https://ceph.ie/article...

Episode 6: What was South Africa’s Long Walk to Economic Freedom? With Johann Fourie Africa is the cradle of civilisation, yet only recently have scholars acknowledged its importance in modern research. What can we learn about economic history from the African experience? And have you ever wondered what economics has to do with Settlers of Catan? Join Andrew and Lloyd as they talk to Johan Fourie...

Episode 5: Why is Crypto nothing new? With John Turner and William Quinn Have you ever wondered why so many people get sucked into novel and volatile investments such as cryptocurrency? Join Andrew and Lloyd as they sit down with another double-act, John Turner and William Quinn (both Queen's University Belfast), authors of Boom and Bust. They discuss bubbles, how they come to pass, and the outcom...