In this keynote lecture, prof. Sheilagh Ogilvie will explain how societies have historically managed epidemics through various social institutions.

What can we learn about institutional transplantation by analyzing craft guilds in colonial Latin America? We use large language models (LLMs) to investigate colonial guild ordinances, addressing two major bottlenecks in assessing institutions: digitizing qualitative sources efficiently and analyzing them quantitatively. Our newly designed methodology reveals both long-term continuities and striking differences between craft guilds in colonial Mexico and Peru, particularly with regard to human capital and product quality. The LLM-based approach identifies patterns that were previously not discernible using standard methods in economic history, its results are reproducible, and it can easily be extended to other historical settings.

What 700 years of pandemic responses reveal about institutional effectiveness

Terra X History - Der Podcast · Episode

We investigate the effects of sewer access on neighborhood characteristics in developing world cities. Because it is more difficult to move sewage uphill than d

Sheilagh Ogilvie - Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid

How human institutions—markets, states, communities, religions, guilds and families—have helped both to control and to exacerbate epidemics throughout history.