Eleventh ASE Annual Meeting

The Eleventh ASE Annual Meeting will take place at Bocconi University, Milan on October 16-17, 2026. The local organisers of this year’s meeting are Guido Alfani, Andrea Colli, and Mattia Fochesato.

It will feature an Economic History Workshop, with presentation of research papers. The ASE Keynote Lecture will be given by professor Dan Bogart (UC Irvine).

Please send an email to ase@santannapisa.it if you would like to attend. Note that a current ASE membership is required to attend the Annual Meeting. Information on payment can be found here: https://www.associazionestoriaeconomica.com/get-involved

Below you can find the preliminary programme for the meeting.

Friday 16

13:30-14:00 Registration

Room TBC

14:00-14:15 Welcome and Opening remarks

14:15-16:00 ASE Economic History Workshop, Parallel Sessions 1

• Session 1.A – Room AS01

Chair: Emanuele Felice (IULM)

Age norms and compulsory schooling: United States, 1850-1900

Louis Henderson (LSE), Michael Lachanski (Georgetown)

Discussant: Gabriele Cappelli (Siena)

Mines and missed school: sulphur, child labor, and human capital in nineteenth-century Sicily

Antonella Anzelmo (Messina), Giulia Montresor (Verona), Vincenzo Prete (Palermo)

Discussant: Francesco Cinnirella (Bergamo)

Conscripts in the Classroom? Female Literacy Corps and Women's Socioeconomic Outcomes in Iran, 1947–1986

Negar Abbaspourmani (Siena)

Discussant: Michele Postigliola (Sapienza)

• Session 1.B – Room AS02

Chair: Andrea Colli (Bocconi)

Business Dynamism and Innovation: Evidence from Novel 19th-Century Microdata

Antonin Bergeaud (HEC Paris & CEPR), Ruveyda Nur Gozen (Cardiff, CEP LSE), Suleyman Faruk Gozen (Bristol)

Discussant: Tancredi Salamone (Sant’Anna)

Safer trade among democracies? Downward trade volatility and political regimes (1962-2018)

Dario Pellegrino (Bank of Italy)

Discussant: Andrea Xamo (Verona)

Why did the era of modern financial integration only start in the mid-1980s?

Michele Calabria, Paolo Di Martino, Marco Molteni (Turin)

Discussant: Paolo Piselli (Bank of Italy)

16:00-16:30 Tea & Coffee break

16:30-17:30 Francesca Carnevali Prize

Chair: Mattia Fochesato (Bocconi)

Gianni Toniolo Best Research Paper Prize

Chair: Michelangelo Vasta (Siena)

Room TBC

17:30-18:30 ASE General Assembly

Room TBC

20:30-23:00 ASE Social Dinner

Ristorante “La Madonnina”

Saturday 17

9:30-11:15 ASE Economic History Workshop, Parallel Sessions 2

• Session 2.A – Room AS01

Chair: Vera Zamagni (Bologna)

Quantifying Social Spending before the Welfare State: Evidence from the Accounts of the Misericordia Maggiore of Bergamo (1600–1800)

Guido Alfani, Francesco Azzoni (Bocconi)

Discussant: Leonardo Ridolfi (Siena)

Holy Growth: Two Millennia of Regional Inequality in Italy Inferred from Church Construction

Carla Salvo, Jacob Weisdorf (Sapienza)

Discussant: Michele Bolla (Cambridge)

When Universities Matter: Academic Quality, Market Access, and Urban Growth in Pre-Industrial Europe

Nikolaos Benos (Ioannina), Maurizio Conti (Genoa), Michail Papazoglou (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training), Stamatis Tsoumaris (Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi)

Discussant: Elona Harka (Bergamo)

• Session 2.B – Room AS02

Chair: Matteo Gomellini (Bank of Italy)

Shifting margins of trade in the long run: Italy, 1880-2022

David Chilosi (KCL), Giovanni Federico (NYAD), Andrea Incerpi (Capgemini)

Discussant: Dario Pellegrino (Bank of Italy)

The causal analysis of historic transport networks: Sources of endogeneity and limitations of the least-cost path approach

Ugo M. Gragnolati (Cagliari), Luigi Moretti (Bergamo), Francesca Rossi (Verona)

Discussant: Marco Martinez (Pisa)

Licentia populandi: The political economy of town foundation in Spanish Sicily, 1500–1700

Carlo Ciccarelli (Tor Vergata), Kerstin Enflo (Lund), Peter Groote (Groningen)

Discussant: Tancredi Buscemi (LUMSA)

11:15-11:45 Tea & Coffee break

11:45-13:15 Eleventh ASE Keynote Lecture

Chair: Alessandro Nuvolari (Sant’Anna; ASE President)

Dan Bogart (UC Davis)

Room TBC

13:15-14.15 Light Lunch

14:15-16:35 ASE Economic History Workshop, Parallel Sessions 3

• Session 3.A – Room AS01

Chair: Alberto Rinaldi (Modena-Reggio)

Reluctant Citizens? Conscription Evasion and the Making of State Capacity in Liberal Age Italy, 1862-1912

Nicola Fresco (Siena)

Discussant: Gianni Marciante (Bologna)

Through the Mill: Tax Technology and Compliance with a New State

Caterina Alfonzo (Bank of Italy), Matteo Ruzzante (Northwestern)

Discussant: Giampaolo Lecce (Bergamo)

A Nation of Emigrants: Transatlantic Emigration and Italian National Identity

Davide M. Coluccia (Bristol), Giampaolo Lecce (Bergamo), Laura Ogliari (Bergamo)

Discussant: Giovanni Vecchi (Tor Vergata)

Extraction or Evasion? The Fiscal Limits of State-Building

Eva Davoine (Berkeley), Joseph Enguehard (ENS de Lyon, Bologna), Victor Gay (Toulouse)

Discussant: Christoph Koenig (Padua)

• Session 3.B – Room AS02

Chair: Federico Barbiellini Amidei (Bank of Italy)

Work or motherhood? A tale of a post-WWII trade-off across Italian regions

Federico Barbiellini Amidei, Sabrina Di Addario, Matteo Gomellini, Paolo Piselli (Bank of Italy)

Discussant: Monica Bozzano (Mercatorum)

Welfare Retrenchment and Social Unrest

John W.Z. Zhang (LSE)

Discussant: Mauro Rota (Sapienza)

Claiming Her Share: Property Rights and Gender Inequality Before Industrialization

Felix Schaff (Bocconi), Sheilagh Ogilvie (Oxford)

Discussant: Giulia Mancini (Sassari)

Geography of Power: Electrification, Industrial Location and Labour Conflict in Liberal Italy (1878–1911)

Laura Hastings Mela (Siena)

Discussant: Giacomo Gabbuti (Sant’Anna)