New CEPR Discussion Paper - DP20214 Justices of the Peace: Legal Foundations of the Industrial Revolution Tim Besley LSE Department of Economics, Dan Bogart UC Irvine, Jonathan Chapman Università di Bologna, 𝗡𝘂𝗻𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗮 ow.ly/zEKs50VNwRT #CEPR_DE #CEPR_EH #CEPR_MG #CEPR_PoE #CEPR_PE #EconTwitter

News: From July 1st Guillaume Blanc is stepping down as Lewis Lab deputy director. We are thankful to Guillaume for his time with us! He will be replaced in this role by Yuzuru Kumon. Xizi Luo, currently at Oxford will also be joining us as a new lecturer xiziluoeh.com

Sheilagh Ogilvie (Oxford) is now presenting her paper “Was Serfdom Good for the Economy? Peasants, Lords, and Markets in Early Modern Bohemia” 👇🏼

A pleasure to talk about serfdom and my Leverhulme project yesterday at the Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development. Oxford Economic & Social History The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development The Leverhulme Trust #echist

Denis Cogneau Cogneau Denis (PSE) is now presenting his forthcoming book “Empire on the Cheap. The Political Economy of French Colonialism since 1800” 👇🏼

The end of an era! As the current academic year ends, it is time say farewell to the esteemed members of the Lewis Lab leaving us: Jordi Caum will be AP at U. of Barcelona Nicholas Gachet will be AP at TEC Monterrey Guillaume Blanc joined later but we forgot to take a new picture!

Who is looking forward to this book? 𝙀𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚’𝙨 𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙥𝙞𝙡𝙡: 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙚𝙣𝙙 More news soon...👇

Simon Johnson Simon Johnson is now giving The Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture at The University of Manchester: "Technology and Global Inequality in the Age of AI" 👇🏼

I just passed my viva!! PhDone :) Thanks a lot to my amazing reviewers Guillaume Blanc JP Faguet and Akos Valentinyi!! Of course, a big thanks to my supervisor 𝗡𝘂𝗻𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗮 So happy!!

Congratulations Dr. Gachet! 🥳

ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʀᴏꜱꜱ ᴏꜰ ɢᴏʟᴅ: ʙʀᴀᴢɪʟɪᴀɴ ᴛʀᴇᴀꜱᴜʀᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇᴄʟɪɴᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴘᴏʀᴛᴜɢᴀʟ, with Davis Kedrosky 18th-century Brazilian gold caused a resource curse in Portugal, hurting industry & institutions Now out in the 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆

Congratulations to Davis Kedrosky & 𝗡𝘂𝗻𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗮 on their "Brazilian gold influx impoverished 18th c Portugal through Dutch Disease & delayed industrialisation via a political-institutional resource curse" paper. But double congratulations to Davis for his first academic publication!

Glad to see Yuzuru's paper forthcoming Argument: Tokugawa Japan had relatively low land inequality, which made people exceptionally poor, whereas W. Europe was much more unequal which gave it higher living standards. (This may seem paradoxical to some people but it's not really)

Deadline approaching 👇🏼

In the first Lewis Lab seminar of the current academic year, Yannick Dupraz (CNRS) is now presenting the paper: “A Century of Language Barriers to Migration in India (with Latika Chaudhary and James Fenske)” 👇🏼

Mauro Rota Mauro Rota (Sapienza) is now presenting the paper “Electricity and regional development in Italy” (joint with M. Postigliola and J. Weisdorf)👇🏼

The 2026 Hajnal Lecture will be given by Dr Victoria Bateman on May 14, 2026. Everyone is welcome👇