This course is available on the MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research), MSc in Global Economic History and MSc in Political Economy of Late Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

All Economic History courses are controlled access and capped. Priority will be given to students for whom the course is within their programme regulations. All course choices submitted before the deadline will be considered. It is advisable that students submit a statement in support of their course choices, as these will be used to allocate places where a course is oversubscribed. Students who submit their course choices after the deadline, and students wishing to take the course as an outside option, will be waitlisted initially and informed in due course whether they have been successful. Once an offer has been sent, students have 48 hours to accept it before it times out, after which it is re-allocated to someone on the waitlist. In all cases, it is strongly advised that students have an alternative course choice as a back-up. For queries, please contact the MSc Programmes Officer.

Deadline for application: First round offers will be sent on Monday 28 September 2026. Students who submit their course choices after the deadline and students wishing to take an Economic History course as an outside option will be waitlisted initially and informed by Wednesday 30 September 2026 whether they have been successful.

There are no formal prerequisites. The course assumes comfort with basic quantitative reasoning and familiarity with introductory regression analysis at the level of an introductory quantitative methods course. Prior study in economics, statistics, econometrics, economic history or political science is helpful but is not required. The course scaffolds its empirical and methodological material rather than assuming it: seminars introduce the data and the identification strategies on which the readings rely, and explain the relevant concepts of causal inference, including natural experiments, difference-in-differences, instrumental variables and regression discontinuity, at a conceptual level as they arise in the literature. The emphasis is on interpreting and critiquing empirical work rather than on deriving estimators.

This course uses the tools of economics, together with the methods of modern causal inference, to study questions at the intersection of economics, politics, and history. It examines how historical events and institutions shape long-run economic and political outcomes, and how those outcomes can be measured and explained. We examine questions such as:

• What do shipwrecks and pirates in the Caribbean have to do with the money supply and economic development of the Spanish Empire?
• Why is trust lower in African societies that were more exposed to the Atlantic slave trade, and how can that relationship be quantified?
• Does the legacy of slavery in the United States still shape political attitudes and ideology today, and if so by how much?
• What were the short-run and long-run economic effects of the political violence of the Cold War, including the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and Afghanistan?
• Why and how did the intelligence work of the CIA influence international trade during the Cold War?

These questions have been studied using the tools of economics and econometrics that students meet in lower-level courses, but they also require some knowledge of politics and history. Political economists hold that one needs some political science in order to understand the economy, and some economics in order to understand politics. Most political and government decisions have economic causes or consequences, and laws and public policies shape the economic decisions of individuals and firms, while voters and interest groups in turn shape laws and policies. The course treats government and business, and the public and private sectors, as two sides of a single problem, and shows the wide range of historical questions that economists and political scientists can now answer. Many of the historical lessons covered also have direct implications for economics, policy and politics today.

20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Essay (1500 words) in Winter Term Week 7.

The formative task is a 1,500-word research proposal, due in week 7 of the Winter Term. Students are also expected to present their essay in class to mitigate AI risks. It consists of a critical literature review, which will be similar in style to the summative exam questions. Written feedback on the essay and oral feedback on the presentation helps students prepare for the final examination.

Brzezinski, A., Chen, Y., Palma, N., and Ward, F. (2024). The vagaries of the sea: evidence on the real effects of money from maritime disasters in the Spanish Empire. Review of Economics and Statistics, 106(5), 1220 to 1235.

Alvarez-Villa, D., and Guardado, J. (2020). The long-run influence of institutions governing trade: evidence from smuggling ports in colonial Mexico. Journal of Development Economics, 144, 102453.

Nunn, N. (2010). Shackled to the past: the causes and consequences of Africa's slave trades. In J. Diamond and J. Robinson (eds.), Natural Experiments of History, 142 to 184. Harvard University Press.

Nunn, N., and Wantchekon, L. (2011). The slave trade and the origins of mistrust in Africa. American Economic Review, 101, 3221 to 3252.

Acemoglu, D., Garcia-Jimeno, C., and Robinson, J. A. (2012). Finding Eldorado: slavery and long-run development in Colombia. Journal of Comparative Economics, 40(4), 534 to 564.

Acharya, A., Blackwell, M., and Sen, M. (2016). The political legacy of American slavery. Journal of Politics, 78(3), 621 to 641.

Dell, M. (2010). The persistent effects of Peru's mining mita. Econometrica, 78(6), 1863 to 1903.

Guardado, J. (2018). Office-selling, corruption, and long-term development in Peru. American Political Science Review, 112(4), 971 to 995.

Lin, E. (2022). How war changes land: soil fertility, unexploded bombs, and the underdevelopment of Cambodia. American Journal of Political Science, 66(1), 222 to 237.

Dube, A., Dube, O., and Garcia-Ponce, O. (2013). Cross-border spillover: U.S. gun laws and violence in Mexico. American Political Science Review, 107(3), 397 to 417.

Berger, D., Easterly, W., Nunn, N., and Satyanath, S. (2013). Commercial imperialism? Political influence and trade during the Cold War. American Economic Review, 103(2), 863 to 896.

Exam (100%), duration: 120 minutes in the Spring exam period.

The summative assessment is a two-hour in-person examination during the Spring Term. The exam questions will be designed to ensure they meet the learning outcomes.