This research seminar introduces into economic and social history as an interdisciplinary research field between history, economics and the social sciences. This term the focus will be on the history of managing globalization in the past. We will explore historical experiences in international trade and its governance, international financial flows and their governance, international monetary systems and international migration and its governance. We will read, present and discuss representative examples of this strand of research; international researchers will attend some of the sessions and present their ongoing work for discussion and feedback.

Students will learn what economic and social history actually is, how historical insights can inform 'present-biased' research in economic and social sciences and how the use of frameworks from economic and social sciences does inform and shape historical research. Especially in the context of economics and socioeconomics we will explore and understand, first, how events that happened in the past may harbor important lessons for the design of economic policy and thus the organization/allocation of resources in a firm, a country, a region or even on a global level. Second, we work on how to use the huge arsenal of events and policies that researchers in economics, socioeconomics and other fields can draw upon to test modern theories with regard their empirical validity, and under which conditions historical experiences can be treated as 'natural experiments' in macroeconomics and international economics.

This is a PI, so in principle attending all sessions is mandatory. To reconcile this theoretical stipulation with the realities of student life, one session on Tuesday or one on Thursday can be missed.

First on the list, first in class, based on attendence in the first session.