The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development

Research group in economic history & comparative development at the Univ. of Manchester. Unravelling the big questions of history.
Led by N. Palma & Y. Kumon.

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Call for papers: “Frontiers of Comparative Development in Historical Perspective”

Conference to be held at the University of Manchester, Nov 13-14.

Keynote speaker: Barry Eichengreen (UC-Berkeley)

Deadline to send us a proposal: September 22, 2025

Application link & details👇

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

https://t.co/byhoe6Kt6g

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Nathan Sussman (GGI) “How Politics,Technology, Liquidity, and Credibility Shape Money”
His keynote at the Lewis Lab conference earlier this month is now on Youtube👇

[Dr Victoria Bateman @vnbateman]

Why, across history, have great civilisations tumbled? How do we prevent our own civilisation suffering the same fate? & what do women have to do with it? Thanks to @ArthurLewisLab @OfficialUoM for making my Hajnal Prize Lecture available online https://t.co/9AzHFWf4Z0 #Economica

[𝗡𝘂𝗻𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗮 @nunopgpalma]

Founding and directing the @ArthurLewisLab, initially with the help of @gguillaumeblanc, then @YuzuruKumon, meant a lot to me.
This is the current core team. Yesterday we had the last seminar of the 2025-26 academic year.
I look forward to UF but it's a bittersweet move for sure!

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Cal Links (Stellenbosch) is now presenting "Slow to Register: Labour and Farm Output after the 1807 Slave Import Ban at the Cape Colony" 👇🏼

[Dr Victoria Bateman @vnbateman]

An exciting day at #QuarryBankMill after being awarded the #HajnalPrize in Economic History @officialuom, which consists of a special piece of (framed) cloth woven at the Mill. Big thanks to staff & volunteers @ntquarrybank @nationaltrust & to economic historians @ArthurLewisLab.

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

We had a keynote by Nathan Sussman (Geneva Graduate Institute), with the title "From Shells to Crypto: How Politics, Technology, Liquidity, and Credibility Shape Money" 👇🏼

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

After presentations by Matthias Morys, Rebecca Stuart, Max Harris, and Hiroki Shin, we have now moved to the policy session, where Will Roberds (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta) is now presenting "Reserve management operations: how little has changed in 300 years" 👇🏼

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

The "Global Monetary History and Policy Lessons" conference has begun! @VeldeFrancois is now presenting "Britain's debt restructuring of 1720-23" 👇🏼

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Victoria Bateman @vnbateman is now presenting her Hajnal Lecture about Women and the Rise and Decline and Civilizations, related to her recent book, *Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth, and Power*!
We are filming it and will make it available in YouTube 👇🏼

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Taking no prisoners, he began the talk by saying "economic history is being taken over by an invasive species" which is ahistorical 😬

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Morgan Kelly (University College Dublin) is now presenting ''Historical Economics versus Economic History "👇🏼

[𝗡𝘂𝗻𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗮 @nunopgpalma]

𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞'𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐥: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐄𝐧𝐝
Check out my new book with CUP, already available for preorder at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your favorite bookseller👇

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Victoria Gierok @GierokVictoria is now presenting "Bringing the Contractor Back In: The Thirty Years’ War and the Fiscal-Military State" 👇🏼

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Balázs Muraközy (Liverpool) is now presenting "From Planning to Markets: Export-Oriented Firms and Firm–Market
Heterogeneity in 1990s Hungary" 👇🏼

[AEA Journals @AEAjournals]

In preindustrial Japan, the widespread distribution of land among peasants led to lower wages and GDP per capita than in England, says @YuzuruKumon of @OfficialUoM. #ResearchHighlight https://t.co/EoeAW4kJUr

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Mark Harrison (Warwick) is now presenting "Three Centuries of Economic Warfare and Sanctions: An Overview" 👇🏼

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Hiroki Shin (Birmingham) is now presenting "A New Perspective on Bank of England Note Circulation: Lost Note Claims Data, 1690s–1830s" 👇🏼

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Malik Çürük (Tilburg) is now presenting "Malthus Meets Luther: the Economics Behind the German Reformation" 👇🏼

[The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development @ArthurLewisLab]

Michiel de Haas @MichieldeHaas (Wageningen) is now presenting "Export Expansion under Price Collapse: Commodity Exporters and the Great Depression, 1930–1938" 👇🏼