Provides some theoretical developments on the topic of the performativity of economics.

I was born in Russia in 1901, of Jewish parents, and came to the United States in 1922 to join my father who left Russia for the United States before World War I. My university studies began in Russia, and were completed at Columbia University (B.Sc. in 1923, M.A. in 1924, Ph.D. in 1926). It was...

Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel, December 11, 1971

The industrial revolution and the subsequent industrialization of the economies occurred first in temperate regions. We argue that this and the associated positive correlation between absolute latitude and GDP per capita are due to the fact that countries located far from the equator suffered...

This paper seeks new insights concerning the health transition in 20th century Spain by analyzing both traditional (mortality-based) and alternative (anthropometric-based) health indicators. Data were drawn from national censuses, vital and cause-of-death statistics and seven National Health...

We illustrate the ongoing research line on Growth, History, and Institutions, which adds to economic growth analysis a historical and an institutional dimension, both at the theoretical and the empirical level. We present applications of this research strategy to the impact of colonization on...

In this essay I would like to confront a number of fundamental puzzles in economic history/development--puzzles that go to the heart of the nature of economic change. They can be broadly classified under two general headings: how to account for the uneven and erratic pattern of both historical...

Luigi Bodio (1840-1920) was an Italian economist and statistician, considered one of the founders of the Italian Statistics. He was one of the 21 founding members of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) in 1885, ISI Director-General during the first 20 years (1885-1905) and ISI...

The financial crisis that struck the global economy in late 2008 had its origins in excesses in the US housing market. Its reverberations, however, were felt around the world and nowhere more keenly than in Western Europe. While North Atlantic trade links were in relative stasis, the North...

Economic growth occurs as resources are reallocated from the traditional sector to the more productive modern sector. Yet, the latter is more vulnerable to political predation. Hence, political risk hinders development. We analyse a politico-economic game between citizens and governments, whose...