Events and Lectures 2021-22

'History, Culture and Popular Belief' Workshop
Hosted by the Department of Economic History, LSE with the generous support of the LSE Hayek Programme.

Thursday 14 July, LSE

Cultural norms are a mechanism for history to influence present-day outcomes, but how and where do norms emerge, and what explains the variation across societies? This workshop brings together economists and scholars studying cultural norms from diverse fields and disciplines, to make further conceptual progress on how folklore underpins popular beliefs.

The first half of the workshop features cutting-edge work on cultural norms. The second half focuses on understanding popular beliefs using a folkloric approach. Presenters include Melanie Meng Xue (LSE), Erik Hornung (University of Cologne), and Will Pooley (Bristol).

More information, including programme, abstracts and how to register can be found here:

•  History, Culture and Popular Belief Workshop

Do financial sanctions work? Lessons from history.

Panellists: Olivier Accominotti, Albrecht Ritschl

Chair: Mary Morgan

Wednesday 9 March, 6:00-7:30pm

Online Public Event, Hosted by the Department of Economic History 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been strongly condemned by governments around the world. American and European leaders have imposed a wave of economic and financial sanctions against Russia. What is the purpose of these sanctions? How effective will they be in counteracting the Russian government’s military goals? And what will be their economic and political consequences in Russia, Europe and the United States? This panel event brings together experts in financial history Olivier Accominotti and Albrecht Ritschl to present a historical perspective on these burning issues. Panellists will discuss how economic sanctions have been used in the past, for what purpose and with what success. The event will ask how financial history can help us understand these current events.

More information, including a link to the recording, can be found here: Do financial sanctions work? Lessons from history

Epstein Lecture 2022

The Effects of Immigration Restrictions on the Economy

Professor Philipp Ager

Thursday 10 March 2022, 6:00pm to 7:30pm

Online Public Event

In the early 20th century, with few restrictions on entry for Europeans, close to one million immigrants arrived on the nation's shores each year. This ended in the 1920s with a series of increasingly restrictive immigration quotas, eventually limiting entry from affected countries to 150,000 a year. Professor Philipp Ager will discuss the socio-economic consequences this policy had for the US population at that time, and what lessons can be learned from it.

Philipp Ager is an economic historian and applied microeconomist, who focuses on the historical development of Europe and the United States,  in particular the development of the American economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

The event will be chaired by Patrick Wallis, Professor of Economic History at LSE.

You can find more information about this event and how to pre-register here: The Effects of Immigration Restrictions on the Economy 

Pre-registration is required for this event. 

The Story of Work: A new history of humankind

Wednesday 19 January 2022, 6:30pm to 8:00pm

Online Public  Event

The department is hosting a discussion with author Jan Lucassen of his new book 'The Story of Work', an inclusive history of labour throughout the ages. Lucassen'b book takes a global view of the ways in which people organise work: in the household, the tribe, the city, and the state; and between men, women, and children. He examines the impact of the invention of money; collective action, as well as migration, slavery, and the concept of leisure.

Lucassen will be in discussion with Professor Sara Horrell, and the event will be chaired by Professor Patrick Wallis.

More information is available here: The story of work, a new history of humankind 

Career and Family: women’s century-long journey toward equity

Thursday 25 November, 6:00pm-7:30pm

Online Public Event

Claudia Goldin is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and former President of the American Economic Association. Her new book traces how generations of women have responded to the problem of balancing career and family as the twentieth century experienced a sea change in gender equality, revealing why true equity for dual career couples remains frustratingly out of reach. Drawing on decades of her own groundbreaking research, Goldin provides a fresh, in-depth look at the diverse experiences of college-educated women from the 1900s to today, examining the aspirations they formed—and the barriers they faced—in terms of career, job, marriage, and children; how the era of COVID-19 has severely hindered women’s advancement, yet how the growth of remote and flexible work may be the pandemic’s silver lining. 

 Join us for a conversation including Claudia Goldin, our own Professor Jane Humphries, and others on the themes of gender equity and couple equity.

Full event details, including how to register are here: Career and Family: women's century-long journey toward equity 

Please note, registration will open on 4 November after 10am.

Forgotten Women: giving voice to the marginalised women of 18th century London

Monday 8 November 6:00pm-7:30pm

Online Public Event

In 1787, the Lock Hospital Asylum opened its doors to a small group of women who had been treated for syphilis, to house and spiritually reform them. Their brief life histories were each recorded,  creating a unique record of women’s experiences as they recalled the abuse, seduction, prostitution, poverty and broken relationships they had faced. 

These records form the basis for an audio drama ‘The Lock Asylum’ by writers Cara Jennings and Sophie Trott in partnership with Morley Radio (Morley College London) and LSE. This event is the launch of this new production, and participants will be able to listen to the audio drama and discuss it with its creators.

Professor Patrick Wallis (LSE), who uncovered the resource, will join the writers and director and discuss with them the challenges of dramatizing historical records, and how these historical events still resonate in the present.

Full event details, including how to register are available here: Forgotten Women: giving voice to the marginalised women of 18th century London

Pandemic Public Finance: How historic is it? Lessons from Financial History

Tuesday 2 November, 6:00-7:00pm

Online Public Event

The enormous costs involved in responding to the current pandemic have lifted public borrowing in many countries to levels not seen since the second world war. What does the economic history of earlier periods of very high debt tell us about the current environment of rising public indebtedness and, potentially, higher inflation? 

Panel discussion featuring Professor Olivier Accominotti (LSE), Professor Graciela Kaminsky (George Washington University), Nobel laureate Professor Thomas Sargent (NYU Stern), and Carmen M Reinhart, (VP and Chief Economist of the World Bank Group). 

Full event details, including how to register are here:  Pandemic Public Finance: how historic is it?

 Please note, registration will open on 12 October after 10am.

Shutdown: how COVID-19 shook the world's economy

Wednesday 22 September 2021 5:00-6:00pm

Online Public Event

When news first began to trickle out of China about a new virus in December 2019, risk-averse financial markets could never have predicted the total economic collapse that would follow as stock markets fell faster and harder than at any time since 1929, currencies across the world plunged and investors panicked. Adam Tooze's new book, Shutdown, tells the story of what followed and, in conversation with Patrick Wallis, he will survey the damage and outline potential ways into recovery.

Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) is the author of Crashed, The Deluge and The Wages of Destruction. He has been the recipient of the Wolfson Prize for History, the Longman-History Today Book of the Year Prize and the Lionel Gelber Prize. Tooze has taught at Cambridge and Yale and is now Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University. Adam is an alumnus of the Economic History Department.

Full event details, including how to register, are here:  Shutdown: how COVID-19 shook the world's economy