the return of cliometrics? on.ft.com/4iy57V2
Trading firm XTX donates £26mn for maths research at UK universities
Billionaire Alex Gerko says Britain is missing out on top academic talent
on.ft.com
December 1, 2025 at 8:39 AM
the return of cliometrics? on.ft.com/4iy57V2
“Quantifying Belief in God (1300-1850)” might be peak cliometrics
November 28, 2025 at 9:38 AM
“Quantifying Belief in God (1300-1850)” might be peak cliometrics
My sense is "big history" either winds up as "Graeber-esque ideological tracts playing fast and loose w/facts," "evo psych 🙄🙄🙄" or cliometrics. The first two are bad history, the third seems unpopular with historians; it mostly lives in poli sci and econ. Rarely do you have good, qual, big history.
there are lots of people who write "big history" books - even as non-historians! - who are liked and respected and engaged with by historians because they did the work! a couple of examples off the top of my head: James C. Scott, Charles Mann.
People say it's impossible to write a responsible "Big History" book but I think that's false! You would just have to be diligent in reading the literature and systematic in contacting academics to stress-test your conclusions.
The Ted Talk crowd would rather pontificate than do actual work.
The Ted Talk crowd would rather pontificate than do actual work.
November 20, 2025 at 5:32 PM
My sense is "big history" either winds up as "Graeber-esque ideological tracts playing fast and loose w/facts," "evo psych 🙄🙄🙄" or cliometrics. The first two are bad history, the third seems unpopular with historians; it mostly lives in poli sci and econ. Rarely do you have good, qual, big history.
Space and Development at the Crossroads: Insights from Cliometrics: Claude Diebolt; Michael Haupert
NEP/RePEc link
to paper
d.repec.org
October 28, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Space and Development at the Crossroads: Insights from Cliometrics: Claude Diebolt; Michael Haupert
Space and Development at the Crossroads: Insights from Cliometrics: Claude Diebolt; Michael Haupert
NEP/RePEc link
to paper
d.repec.org
October 27, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Space and Development at the Crossroads: Insights from Cliometrics: Claude Diebolt; Michael Haupert
and that's true *within* the remit of economic history or even cliometrics stuff full stop. He's genuinely not up there, the work genuinely sucks and is based on EcHR rejecting levels of bad quant most of the time.
October 13, 2025 at 10:24 AM
and that's true *within* the remit of economic history or even cliometrics stuff full stop. He's genuinely not up there, the work genuinely sucks and is based on EcHR rejecting levels of bad quant most of the time.
October 10, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Stop trying to make ‘cliometrics’ happen. It’s not going to happen.
August 29, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Stop trying to make ‘cliometrics’ happen. It’s not going to happen.
Maybe it is time for a refresh/republication of our critiques of cliometrics? I know they keep coming back and back (and I did cover them in my historiography class when I was allowed to teach history) but this current wave seems more persistent.
It's over 50 years since 'Time on the Cross' and cliometrics and number-crunching history and I thought that had gone the way of the dodo. But given that people are trying to recreate the dodo and other extinct beasts it's not astonishing that old exploded ideas keep getting revived.
en.wikipedia.org
August 29, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Maybe it is time for a refresh/republication of our critiques of cliometrics? I know they keep coming back and back (and I did cover them in my historiography class when I was allowed to teach history) but this current wave seems more persistent.
It's over 50 years since 'Time on the Cross' and cliometrics and number-crunching history and I thought that had gone the way of the dodo. But given that people are trying to recreate the dodo and other extinct beasts it's not astonishing that old exploded ideas keep getting revived.
en.wikipedia.org
August 29, 2025 at 9:33 AM
It's over 50 years since 'Time on the Cross' and cliometrics and number-crunching history and I thought that had gone the way of the dodo. But given that people are trying to recreate the dodo and other extinct beasts it's not astonishing that old exploded ideas keep getting revived.
In Bridenbaugh's famous 1962 AHA address in the midst of the fight over cliometrics in which he railed against "the bitch-goddess ǫᴜᴀɴᴛɪꜰɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ," he less famously dropped a lot of antisemitic innuendo against the new school of historians who were adopting social scientific methods.
August 28, 2025 at 4:17 PM
In Bridenbaugh's famous 1962 AHA address in the midst of the fight over cliometrics in which he railed against "the bitch-goddess ǫᴜᴀɴᴛɪꜰɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ," he less famously dropped a lot of antisemitic innuendo against the new school of historians who were adopting social scientific methods.
It's obviously very funny that this guy thinks he just invented quantitative social science, but beyond that, there's an interesting story to be told about the shifting politics of the long fight over quantitative methods in history, dating back well before the rise of cliometrics in the 1960s.
August 28, 2025 at 4:08 PM
It's obviously very funny that this guy thinks he just invented quantitative social science, but beyond that, there's an interesting story to be told about the shifting politics of the long fight over quantitative methods in history, dating back well before the rise of cliometrics in the 1960s.
Oh look, someone invented Cliometrics 🙄
August 28, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Oh look, someone invented Cliometrics 🙄
we've been down this road before and it inevitably leads to cliometrics and "actually enslaved people lived better lives under slavery"
August 28, 2025 at 12:55 PM
we've been down this road before and it inevitably leads to cliometrics and "actually enslaved people lived better lives under slavery"
RM Crawford was an Oxford-trained historian. Headed History Dept at Melbourne University for many years & edited the journal Historical Studies. Developed the notion of cliometrics/ cliodynamics to try and “measure” historic phenomena, a liberal response to the “science” of Marxist historiography.
August 24, 2025 at 3:20 AM
RM Crawford was an Oxford-trained historian. Headed History Dept at Melbourne University for many years & edited the journal Historical Studies. Developed the notion of cliometrics/ cliodynamics to try and “measure” historic phenomena, a liberal response to the “science” of Marxist historiography.
The bizarre world of Dominic Cummings and English thinking (such as it can be typified as the cognitive processes of a human being) on the challenges facing the UK.
Memo @newstatesman.com: the “science” of cliometrics/ cliodynamics dates from the 1950s, not the recent invention of Peter Turchin.
Memo @newstatesman.com: the “science” of cliometrics/ cliodynamics dates from the 1950s, not the recent invention of Peter Turchin.
The rage of Dominic Cummings
Britain’s rogue intellectual has predicted a civil war. Is he also cheerleading one?
🖊️ John Merrick
Britain’s rogue intellectual has predicted a civil war. Is he also cheerleading one?
🖊️ John Merrick
The rage of Dominic Cummings
Britain’s rogue intellectual has predicted a civil war. Is he also cheerleading one?
www.newstatesman.com
August 23, 2025 at 11:34 AM
The bizarre world of Dominic Cummings and English thinking (such as it can be typified as the cognitive processes of a human being) on the challenges facing the UK.
Memo @newstatesman.com: the “science” of cliometrics/ cliodynamics dates from the 1950s, not the recent invention of Peter Turchin.
Memo @newstatesman.com: the “science” of cliometrics/ cliodynamics dates from the 1950s, not the recent invention of Peter Turchin.
Herbert Gutman’s “Slavery and the Numbers Game” was one of the first to unpack that severely biased attempt at “cliometrics”. (Wikipedia’s article about that book is just too “both sides” when reporting criticism / praise.)
August 20, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Herbert Gutman’s “Slavery and the Numbers Game” was one of the first to unpack that severely biased attempt at “cliometrics”. (Wikipedia’s article about that book is just too “both sides” when reporting criticism / praise.)
Also there's a shout out to cliometrics in 1988 -- so you know, DH is not left out of the equation even then.
August 15, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Also there's a shout out to cliometrics in 1988 -- so you know, DH is not left out of the equation even then.
A recent social history of that for c18th yet to be written I think (perhaps since lab theory of value is political economy stuff, while wage labour now a cliometrics thing). But I've recommended Ted McCormick's latest book elsewhere here for other reasons, I think you'd find it very interesting.
July 30, 2025 at 1:36 PM
A recent social history of that for c18th yet to be written I think (perhaps since lab theory of value is political economy stuff, while wage labour now a cliometrics thing). But I've recommended Ted McCormick's latest book elsewhere here for other reasons, I think you'd find it very interesting.
7/ 📚 Read the full column by @gregorigv.bsky.social & I:
👉 cepr.org/voxeu/column...
You may find the full working paper on my website too. Hope you enjoyed it.
@econ-observatory.bsky.social #econtwitter #econsky #EconHistory #Cliometrics #DataScience #History
👉 cepr.org/voxeu/column...
You may find the full working paper on my website too. Hope you enjoyed it.
@econ-observatory.bsky.social #econtwitter #econsky #EconHistory #Cliometrics #DataScience #History
Network and language analysis of economic history
Economic history is increasingly able to provide us with evidence and inform pressing questions at the intersection of research and real-world decision-making. This column uses natural language processing and network analysis of articles from five leading journals over the past 25 years to identify a shift towards a more global, data-driven, and methodologically advanced field. It maps changing thematic priorities, institutional collaborations, and author networks, highlighting both a generational turnover and growing geographical diversity. It also reveals a strong move towards causal identification-based econometrics alongside a sharp decline in qualitative research, signalling both convergence and trade-offs in the discipline’s integration with mainstream economics.
cepr.org
July 21, 2025 at 8:31 AM
7/ 📚 Read the full column by @gregorigv.bsky.social & I:
👉 cepr.org/voxeu/column...
You may find the full working paper on my website too. Hope you enjoyed it.
@econ-observatory.bsky.social #econtwitter #econsky #EconHistory #Cliometrics #DataScience #History
👉 cepr.org/voxeu/column...
You may find the full working paper on my website too. Hope you enjoyed it.
@econ-observatory.bsky.social #econtwitter #econsky #EconHistory #Cliometrics #DataScience #History
cliometrics people and other who are working on quant history - although from what I gather they like bespoke ML but not generative AI, which has taken the bulk of attention.
June 17, 2025 at 9:26 PM
cliometrics people and other who are working on quant history - although from what I gather they like bespoke ML but not generative AI, which has taken the bulk of attention.
The 12th Australasian Cliometrics Workshop will be held 14 Nov 2025 at Monash Uni, Melbourne.
Proposals accepted thru 14 July, full papers due 31st Oct.
More info: Quoc-Anh Do ([email protected]) & Laura Panza ([email protected])
ECR & grad students particularly encouraged
📉📈🗃📗 #AcademicSky
Proposals accepted thru 14 July, full papers due 31st Oct.
More info: Quoc-Anh Do ([email protected]) & Laura Panza ([email protected])
ECR & grad students particularly encouraged
📉📈🗃📗 #AcademicSky
May 25, 2025 at 7:53 PM
The 12th Australasian Cliometrics Workshop will be held 14 Nov 2025 at Monash Uni, Melbourne.
Proposals accepted thru 14 July, full papers due 31st Oct.
More info: Quoc-Anh Do ([email protected]) & Laura Panza ([email protected])
ECR & grad students particularly encouraged
📉📈🗃📗 #AcademicSky
Proposals accepted thru 14 July, full papers due 31st Oct.
More info: Quoc-Anh Do ([email protected]) & Laura Panza ([email protected])
ECR & grad students particularly encouraged
📉📈🗃📗 #AcademicSky
The 12th Australasian Cliometrics Workshop will be held 14 Nov 2025 at Monash Uni, Melbourne.
Proposals accepted thru 14 July, full papers due 31st Oct.
More info: Quoc-Anh Do ([email protected]) & Laura Panza ([email protected])
ECR & grad students particularly encouraged
📉📈🗃📗 #AcademicSky
Proposals accepted thru 14 July, full papers due 31st Oct.
More info: Quoc-Anh Do ([email protected]) & Laura Panza ([email protected])
ECR & grad students particularly encouraged
📉📈🗃📗 #AcademicSky
May 18, 2025 at 5:55 PM
The 12th Australasian Cliometrics Workshop will be held 14 Nov 2025 at Monash Uni, Melbourne.
Proposals accepted thru 14 July, full papers due 31st Oct.
More info: Quoc-Anh Do ([email protected]) & Laura Panza ([email protected])
ECR & grad students particularly encouraged
📉📈🗃📗 #AcademicSky
Proposals accepted thru 14 July, full papers due 31st Oct.
More info: Quoc-Anh Do ([email protected]) & Laura Panza ([email protected])
ECR & grad students particularly encouraged
📉📈🗃📗 #AcademicSky
Call for paper:
The Scientific days of the Beninese Economy
Themes:
• Axe 1 : Origin and Cliometrics of Institutions.
• Axe 2 : Political and Economy of institutions.
• Axe 3 : Quality of Governance and Development.
The Scientific days of the Beninese Economy
Themes:
• Axe 1 : Origin and Cliometrics of Institutions.
• Axe 2 : Political and Economy of institutions.
• Axe 3 : Quality of Governance and Development.
April 26, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Call for paper:
The Scientific days of the Beninese Economy
Themes:
• Axe 1 : Origin and Cliometrics of Institutions.
• Axe 2 : Political and Economy of institutions.
• Axe 3 : Quality of Governance and Development.
The Scientific days of the Beninese Economy
Themes:
• Axe 1 : Origin and Cliometrics of Institutions.
• Axe 2 : Political and Economy of institutions.
• Axe 3 : Quality of Governance and Development.
Fwiw I really hope LLMs make ‘cliometrics’, statistics, network analysis, word vector analysis, etc etc far easier. I looks forward to a world where I don’t need to learn R or Python but can ask for powerful data analysis in natural language
March 27, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Fwiw I really hope LLMs make ‘cliometrics’, statistics, network analysis, word vector analysis, etc etc far easier. I looks forward to a world where I don’t need to learn R or Python but can ask for powerful data analysis in natural language