The Economic History Society today celebrates its centenary with a major international conference, unveiling new research that reshapes our understanding of the economic past On the Long Run we highlight some new papers by Assaf Abraham, Daniel Sanchez, Marco Cokić, Cyril Thomson and Sara Benetti

📜New working paper: Why did Socialist countries join an explicitly Capitalist trade treaty and how did it impact them? Between 1966 and 1973, four Eastern bloc countries acceded to the GATT. Using a gravity model, I estimate the impact of this historical curiosity. 1/3 🧵

Es ist wirklich bemerkenswert, dass (Ex-)Politiker allen Ernstes im Jahr 2025 noch erklären, es wäre die Aufgabe von Abgeordneten bei Postenbesetzungen zu intervenieren. Nein, ist es nicht. Um diese Unsitte - aka Ämterkorruption - abzustellen, wurden Besetzungsverfahren eingeführt. Vor Jahrzehnten.

🚨 The Economist has been telling you for years that polygamy causes civil war by locking men out of marriage. A new article with @rebeccasear.bsky.social and @anthrolog.bsky.social explains that the demography of marriage markets doesn't actually work that way. 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

High rates of polygyny do not lock large proportions of men out of the marriage market | PNAS

There is a widespread belief, in both the scholarly literature and the popular press, that polygyny prevents large numbers of men from marrying by ...

pnas.org

The ancients were onto something....

Our LSE PhD students showcased groundbreaking research at this year's Economic History Society Conference poster sessions — from Cold War trade dynamics to 19th-century French convents. Dive into their insights in our blog: blogs.lse.ac.uk/economichist...

Great thread! There's a big difference between trade deals and trade agreements. Trade deals are limited, short term, and often superficial (remember IPEF?). Trade agreements are comprehensive, long term, substantive, and require Congressional approval. US isn't doing the latter.

Megan Cassella@megancnbc.bsky.social · last yr.

In a long monologue in the Oval Office beside Canadian PM Mark Carney this afternoon, the President appears to say the trade "deals" his team are working on are not deals in the traditional sense, as they will not have to be signed. This is really significant! More in thread.

"A visit by the Holy Father to Yemen, while admittedly unlikely at present for a variety of reasons, would potentially have a significant effect on the amount of molluscs that it sells to Italy or Ireland." on.ft.com/41U9kdU

It’s an economic miracle!

[FREE TO READ] Papal bull

on.ft.com

I’m happy to announce that my JMP🚨🚨Teacher-directed change: The case of the English Scientific Revolution” is now out as a working paper. Finalising the draft has been a lot of work. So, very happy to share this. For lots of history, new micro-data &natural experiments, read on ->->->

We are very happy to publish the "National Elections Database," including the results of 1,023 presidential and 2,962 parliamentary elections conducted worldwide since 1946! www.nationalelectionsdatabase.com with Benjamin Marx and Vincent Rollet

We’re social scientists. We can’t solve everything, but we make sure you *really* get what’s wrong with it.

🚨🚨🚨PhD summer school at the University of Southern Denmark 🚨🚨🚨What can we learn about tariffs and trade from history? Chris Meisner, our keynote speaker, is one of the most renowned experts on historical trade and policy. + Learn ML + NLP tools in a hands-on-approach. Join us 11-22 August 2025!

Our PhD student @marco-cokic.bsky.social is presenting in the SPEECH seminar on trade of Central and Eastern European countries during the Cold War. For the countries of the former Eastern bloc, trade did not lead to specialisation. Instead the different economies became more similar over time.

Fantastic new macro data source for 243 countries - GDP, inflation, government finance, trade, unemployment, interest rates etc. - open-source - continuously updated - unification and extension of existing resources (IMF, World Bank, and OECD) with historical records:

Modern supply chains don't look like trade theory 101! They involve constant border crossings, each now hit by tariffs. Tariffs raise prices, but the more important thing they do is disrupt supply relationships. 1/

Do you not know with how little wisdom the world is governed? paulkrugman.substack.com/p/never-unde...

Never Underestimate the Ignorance of the Powerful

When you’re a star, people let you think you're smart

paulkrugman.substack.com

My round for our Christmas dinner party quiz: 🎄Economic Christory 🎄

🚨 New Blog! 🚨 GDP is everywhere in development. But in Zambia in 2010, the national accounts were prepared by just one (1!) person. How much can we trust developing country GDP? A 🧵 and post on Morten Jerven's 2013 classic, Poor Numbers, on how African GDP is actually made—

1/5 Jonathan Guthrie claims in his @ft article that “It’s bananas to regard art as an investment”. A few thoughts from someone researching art as an investment - a thread🧵 www.ft.com/content/daf9...

It’s bananas to regard art as an investment

Enjoy your paintings and sculptures. Just don’t expect a return on what you paid for them

ft.com

I created a starter pack of LSE Economic History people on Bluesky. Let me know if I have missed you! go.bsky.app/BJSugbh