Department News 2022-23

'Uncovering the economics of a slave ship' - Dr Anne Reuderman's research features in LSE Research for the World

Dr Anne Ruderman’s discovery of documents from slave ship 'La Bonne Societe' sheds new light on the way the industry operated, revealing more about the economics of this very specific market and providing a greater understanding of how the transatlantic slave trade operated on the African coast.

Read the full article here: Uncovering the economics of a slave ship

Pandemics, Economics and Inequality Lessons from the Spanish Flu

Basco, S., Domènech, J., and  Rosés, J. R. - Palgrave Macmillan (2022)

With the outbreak of Covid-19 there is an increased need to learn about the economic effects of pandemics. Joan Rosés has co-authored this book on the impact of the Spanish Flu, using data from Spain, a reliable source of data where mortality data was not affected by the First World War. 

Alum opens new natural history museum in Sheffield

Recent graduate James Hogg has founded the Yorkshire Natural History Museum in Sheffield, the first northerm museum dedicated to the subject. The museum made national news on its opening day when an exhibit was identified by an expert paleontologist as probably the oldest known example of a vertebrate embroyo found in Britain. 

James developed his interest in paleontology while in search of quiet study space as a student on the BSc Economics and Economic History programme. The British Museum and Natural History Museum offered an alternative to the busy library at LSE, and thus his passion was born. 

More information about the museum can be found here: ‘The whole embryo was there’: expert makes rare find on Sheffield museum opening day'

Professor Nick Crafts
Play it again Clem? Lessons from the 1940s for Post-Covid Britain
6 October 2022, 6.30pm.

After World War Two, Britain faced issues which are familiar today: strengthening the welfare state, dealing with an inflated public debt, improving productivity performance, underpinning support for the market economy, and credibly promising a better future. The Attlee government has been widely praised for the way it handled this difficult situation, and it is often said that we should remember the lessons of the 1940s. But what are the lessons we should learn, how successful were the policies of the time, and should we really try to go back to the future? 

This is a hybrid event. Information about the event and how to book is available here: Play it again Clem? Lessons from the 1940s for Post-Covid Britain

Brad DeLong
Slouching Towards Utopia - book launch. 
10 October 2022 6.00pm.  

DeLong tells the story of the major economic and technological shifts of the 20th century. His book charts the unprecedented explosion of material wealth after 1870, which transformed living standards around the world but which, paradoxically, has left us with unprecedented inequality, global warming, and widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo. 

This is an online event. More information and how to book is available here:  Slouching Towards Utopia

Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay! A Popular History of Taxes
Film screening hosted by Natacha Postel-Vinay (LSE)
24 October 2022, 6.00pm

Without taxation there is no government. Taxation is essential, but who is to pay, and for what? For centuries people have fought over these questions, and these fights have been at the heart of the development and crises of democracy, from Magna Carta through the French Revolution to the Global Financial Crisis and the pandemic. Bringing together internationally renowned academic experts and policymakers, this gripping documentary retraces this fascinating history across France, Britain and Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day. 

In-person event.  More information and how to book is available here: Can't Pay, Won't Pay!

Sovereignty without Power: Liberia in the age of empires, 1822-1980

Leigh Gardner – Inaugural Lecture
23 November 2022, 6.00pm. 

Leigh Gardner's work focuses on the economic and financial history of Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with an emphasis on Africa's connections to the global economy. 

Hybrid event.  More information and how to book is available here: Sovereignty without Power.