Economic History Association

The EHA recognizes excellence in research, publication, and teaching of economic history by awarding several annual and biennial prizes at the President's Awards Banquet during the annual meetings. Each fall the Announcements page on this web site and the EHA newsletter include Calls for Nominations and submission information.

Dissertation Awards

Dissertations chosen for presentation at the annual meetings are finalists for these annual awards.

• Allan Nevins Prize for the Best Dissertation in U.S. or Canadian Economic History

2008 Winner: Marco Sunder, Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat Munchen
"Passports and Economic Development: An Anthropometric History of the U.S. Elite in the Nineteenth Century". Advisors: John Komlos and Claude Hillinger.

2007 Winner: Mark Geiger, University of Missouri
"Missouri's Hidden Civil War: Financial Conspiracy and the End of the Plater Elite". Advisor: LeeAnn Whites.

2006 Winner: Leah Platt Boustan, Harvard University
"The Effect of Black Migration on Northern Cities and Labor Markets, 1940-1970". Advisor: Claudia Goldin.

2005 Winner: William H. Bergmann, University of Cincinnati
"Commerce and Arms: The Federal Government, Native Americans, and the Economy of the Old Northwest, 1783-1807"

2004 Winner: Rebecca Ann Holmes, University of Arizona
"The impact of State Labor Regulations on Manufacturing Input Demand during the Progressive Era"

2003 Winner: Claire Priest, Northwestern University School of Law
"Currency Policies and the Nature of Litigation in Colonial New England"

2002 Winner: Joseph Davis, Duke University
"A Quantity Based Index of U.S. Industrial Production, 1790-1915"

2001 Winner: Daniel A. Schiffman, Bar Ilan University
"Shattered Rails, Ruined Credit: Financial Fragility and Railroad operations in the Great Depression"

2000 Winner: William White, Ohio State University
"An Unsung Hero: The Farm Tractor's Contribution to Twentieth Century United States Economic Growth"

1999 Winner: Ian E.M. Keay, University of British Columbia
"Assessing the Performance of Canada's Manufacturers: Firm Level Evidence from 1902-1990"

1998 Winner: William Collins, Harvard University
"Labor Mobility in American and Indian Economic History"

List of winners 1971-1997

• Alexander Gerschenkron Prize for the Best Dissertation in non-US or Canadian Economic History             

2008 Winner: Amilcar Eduardo Challu, for the dissertation, "Grain Markets, Food Supply Policies, and Living Standards in late Colonial Mexico" completed at Harvard University. Advisor: John Coatsworth.

2007 Winner: Steven Nafziger, for the dissertation, "Communal Institutions, Resource Allocation, and Russian Economic Development: 1861-1905" completed at Yale University. Advisor: Timothy Guinnane.

2006 Winner: Ran Abramitsky, for the dissertation, "The Limits of Equality: An Economics Analysis of the Israeli Kibbutz," completed at Northwestern University. Advisor: Joel Mokyr.

2005 Winner: Drew Keeling, for the dissertation, "The Business of Transatlantic Migration between Europe and the USA, 1900-1914," completed at the University of California, Berkeley.

2004 Winner: Tracy K. Dennison, for the dissertation, "Economy and Society in Rural Russia: The Serf Estate of Voshchazhnikovo," completed at the University of Cambridge.

2003 Winner: Petra Moser, for the dissertation, "Determinants of Innovation: Evidence from Nineteenth-Century World Fairs," completed at the University of California, Berkeley.

2002 Winner: Graciela Márquez, for the dissertation, "The Political Economy of Mexican Protectionism, 1868-1911," completed at Harvard University.

2001 Winner: Eona Karakacili, for the dissertation, "Peasants, Productivity and Profit in the Open Fields of England: A Study of Economic and Social Development," completed at the University of Torontounder.

2000 Winner: Aurora Gomez-Galvarriato Freer, for the dissertation, "The Impact of Revolution: Business and Labor in the Mexican Textile Industry, Orizaba, Veracruz, 1900-1930," completed at Harvard University.

1999 Winner: Chiaki Moriguchi, for the dissertation, "The Evolution of Employment Systems in the United States and Japan, 1900-1960: A Comparative Historical and Institutional Analysis," completed at Stanford University.

1998 Winner: Hal Hansen, University of Wisconsin
Caps and Gowns: Historical Reflections on the Institutions that Shaped Learning for Work in Germany and the United States, 1800-1945

List of winners 1984-1997

The annual Jonathan Hughes Prize is awarded to recognize excellence in teaching economic history. Jonathan Hughes was an outstanding scholar and a committed and influential teacher of economic history. The prize includes a $1,200 cash award. The winner is selected by the EHA Committee on Education and Teaching.

2008: Pamela Nickless, University of North Carolina, Asheville2007: Peter Lindert, University of California, Davis2006: Kerry Odell, Scripps College2005: Larry Neal, Univerity of Illinois, Champaign Urbana

2004: Daniel Barbezat, Amherst College

2003: Charles Feinstein, All Souls College, Oxford University

2002: Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley

2001: Carolyn Tuttle, Lake Forest College

2000: Jeffrey Williamson, Harvard University

1999: Robert Whaples, Wake Forest University

1998: Robert Gallman, University of North Carolina
List of winners 1994-1998

Publications Awards

• Arthur H. Cole Prize for the Best Article Published in the Journal of Economic History
•  2008 Winner: Aldo Musacchio, Harvard Business School, for the article "Can Civil Law Countries get Good Institutions: Lessons from the History of Creditor Rights and Bond Markets in Brazil", which appeared in the March 2008 issue.
2007 Winner: Tim Leunig, London School of Economics, for the article"'Time is Money: A Re-assessment of the Passenger Social Savings From Victorian British Railways", which appeared in the September 2006 issue.

2006 Winners: Stanley L. Engerman and Kenneth L. Sokoloff, for the article, "The Evolution of Suffrage Institutions in the New World," which appeared in the December 2005 issue.

2005 Winners: Oscar Gelderblom and Joost Jonker, for the article, "Completing a Financial Revolution: The Finance of the Dutch East India Trade and the Rise of the Amsterdam Capital Market, 1595-1612," which appeared in the September 2004 issue.

2004 Winners: John James and Mark Thomas, University Virginia, for the article, "A Golden Age: Unemployment and the American Labor Market, 1880-1910," which appeared in the December 2003 issue.

2003 Winners: Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode, University of California Davis and the University of North Carolina, for the article, "Hog-Round Marketing, Seed Quality, and Government Policy: Institutional Change in U.S. Cotton Production, 1920-1960," which appeared in the June 2003 issue.

2002 Winners: Suleyman Ozmucur and Sevket Pamuk, Bogazici University, for the article, "Real Wages and the Standards of Living in the Ottoman Empire, 1489-1914," which appeared in the June 2002 issue.

2001 Winner: Lillian Li, Swarthmore College, for the article, "Integration and Disintegration in North China's Grain Markets, 1738-1911," which appeared in the September 2000 issue.

2000 Winner: Alan Taylor and Geraldo della Paolera

1999 Winner: Charles Feinstein, All Souls College, Oxford University, U.K., for "Pessimism Perpetuated: Real Wages and the Standard of Living in Britain during and after the Industrial Revolution," published in the September 1998 issue.

1998 Winner: Kevin O'Rourke
The European Grain Invasion, 1870-1913

List of winners 1966-1997

• Gyorgi Ranki Biennial Prize is awarded every other year for an Outstanding Book on the Economic History of Europe

2007 Winner: Avner Greif, Stanford University, for his book titled Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy: Lessons from Medieval Trade, published by Cambridge University Press, 2006.

2005 Winners: Robert C. Allen, Nuffield College, Oxford University, for his book titled Farm to Factory : A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution, published by Princeton University Press, 2003; and Peter Lindert, University of California, Davis for his book titled Growing Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth Since the Eighteenth Century, published by Cambridge University Press, 2004.

2003 Winner: Michael McCormick for his book titled Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce AD 300-900, published by Cambridge University Press in 2002.

2001 Winners: Stephan Epstein of the London School of Economics for Freedom and Growth: Markets and States in Europe, 1300-1750, published by Routledge in 2000; and Philip T. Hoffman of the California Institute of Technology, Gilles Postel-Vinay of the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal of the University of California at Los Angeles for Priceless Markets: The Political Economy of Credit in Paris, 1660-1870, published by the University of Chicago Press, 2000.

1999 Winners: Sheilagh Ogilvie for her book titled State Corporatism and Proto-Industry, and to Ad M. van der Woude and Jan de Vries for their book titled The First Modern Economy. Both books were published by Cambridge University Press.

List of winners 1992-1997

• Alice Hanson Jones Biennial Prize is awarded every other year for an Outstanding Book on North American Economic History

2008 Winner: Carlos Marichal, Bankruptcy of Empire: Mexican Silver and the Wars between Spain, Britain, and France, 1760-1810. (Cambridge University Press, 2007)

2006 Winners: B. Zorina Khan, The Democratization of Invention; Patents and Copyrights in American Economic Development, 1790 - 1920. (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and Werner Troesken, Water, Race and Disease. (The MIT Press, 2004)

2004 Winner: Allan H. Meltzer, A History of the Federal Reserve. (University of Chicago Press, 2004)

2002 Winner: Gloria Main, People of a Spacious Land. (Harvard University Press, 2001)

2000 Winner: Dora Costa, The Evolution of Retirement: An American Economic History, 1880-1990. (Chicago UP, 1998)

1998 Winners: Lance Davis, Robert Gallman, and Karen Gleiter, Pursuit of Leviathan

List of winners 1994-1996

• Arthur H. Cole Grants-in-Aid:

The Committee on Research in Economic History awards Arthur H. Cole grants-in-aid to support research in economic history, regardless of time period or geographic area.

2004 Recipients:

• Timothy Cuff, Westminster College, Pennsylvania. "An Anthropometric History of Late Nineteenth-Century Pennsylvania."
• Mauricio Drelichman, University of British Columbia. "The Economic Decline of Spain in the 16th and 17th Centuries."
• Yovanna Pineda, St. Michael's College, Vermont. "Inventing Markets for Domestic Manufacturing: Industrial Policy and the Politics of Tariffs and Rent-Seeking in Argentina."
• Robert Wright, New York University. "The Relationship between Financial Development and Economic Growth in the Early American Economy."

2003 Recipients:

• Fred Smith, Davidson College. "Land Values in New York City."
• Daniel Schiffman, Bar Ilan University. "Effects of RFC Assistance on Railroad Bond Prices."
• Santhi Heejeebu, University of Iowa. "Microeconomic Origins of British India."
• Ryan Johnson, Brigham Young University. "Crime in American Cities."

2002 Recipients:

• Scott Carson, University of Texas, Permian Basin. "An Economic History of America's 19th Century Great Basin."
• Michael J. Haupert, University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. "Pay Ball: Estimating the Profitability of the New York Yankees 1914-1937."
• Mark Kanazawa, Carleton College. "Water Litigation for Mining in Placer County during the California Gold Rush."
• Eona Karakacili, University of California, Davis. "Income Distribution in Medieval England, c.1250 to 1450."
• Harry Kitsikopoulos, New York University. "Comparative Study of the Economies of Medieval England and Japan."
• David Ryden, University of Houston. "West Indian Sugar Economy, 1750-1807."

2001 Recipients:

• Jonathan Bean, Department of History, Southern Illinois University. "Capitalist Consumerism: The Better Business Bureaus in the Twentieth Century."
• Gregary Besharov, Department of Economics, Duke University. "Lump-Sum Taxation in Early American History."
• Bradley Hansen, Department of Economics, Mary Washington College. "A New Deal for Bankruptcy Law: The Political Economy of the Chandler Act."
• Erin Jordan, Department of History, University of Northern Colorado. "Divine Labor: The Economic Practice of Cistercian Nuns in Thirteenth-Century Flanders."

2000 Recipients:

• A. Glenn Crothers, Indiana University Southeast. "Public Culture and Economic Liberalism in Early National Virginia."
• Siddharth Chandra, University of Pittsburgh. "Opium Consumption in the Netherlands Indies."
• C. U. Uche, Nigeria. "Central Banking in a War Economy."

1999 Recipients:

• Edward N. Beatty, Duquesne University, (Sources of Technological Change in Late Nineteenth Century Mexico);
• Simone A. Wegge, Lake Forest College, (Early Mass Migration: German Emigration of the 19th-Century);
• Craig Steven Pascoe, University of Georgia, (Building the Detroit of the South: Automobile Manufacturing In the Southern United States, 1905-1925);
• Andrew Seltzer, University of London, ( International Labor Markets and Personnel Practices Within the Union Bank of Australia (UBA) ); and
• Byung Khun Song, Corpus Christi College, The Cambridge Group, (Allotment, Rural Unrest, and Poor Relief Policy in the Early 19th-Century England).

The Library Company of Philadelphia's Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES) awards an Annual Prize.

2004: Andrew Shankman, "A New Thing on Earth: Alexander Hamilton, Pro-Manufacturing Republicans, and the Democratization of American Political Economy" in the Journal of the Early Republic, 23 (Fall 2003; and Naomi Lamoreaux, "Rethinking the Transition to Capitalism in the Early American Northeast" in the Journal of American History, 90 (September 2003).

2001: Simon Middleton, "'How it came that the bakers bake no bread': A Struggle for Trade Privileges in Seventeenth-Century New Amsterdam" in the William and Mary Quarterly, April 2001; and Ann Carlos and Frank Lewis, "Trade, Consumption, and the Native Economy: Lessons from York Factory, Hudson Bay" in the Journal of Economic History, December 2001

2000: Robert Martello, "Paul Revere's Last Ride: The Road to Rolling Copper" in the Journal of the Early Republic, Summer, 2000; and David Cowen, "The First Bank of the United States and the Securities Market Crash of 1792" in the Journal of Economic History, December 2000.