Global Economic History
data
Our Global Economic History research programme uses data across countries to study long run growth patterns. It covers two key areas of focus:
- The evolution of colonial economies using company-level records to shed new light on the economics and consequences of the imperial period.
- A new data digitisation initiative focused on the UK economy from the late 19th century until the start of electronic records in the 1980s.
Project Contacts:
Bishnupriya Gupta
Professor of Economics, University of Warwick
Stephen Broadberry
Professor of Economic History, Nuffield College, Oxford
James Fenske
Professor of Economics, University of Warwick
Featured Projects
Economic History podcast
Why the West got rich? Interviews with expert guests on the making of the modern world.
Economics explainer videosLink opens in a new window
Video resources which relate historical data to present day global politics.
Nicholas Crafts lectures
Series of annual lectures for economic historians which examine key research topics.
Project News
WWII bombing may have helped shape the geography of Brexit, new study suggests
Areas hit harder during the Blitz were more likely to back Brexit in 2016 - not simply because of economics or demography, but because wartime experience app...
Thursday 23 Jul 2026
India’s caste barriers to meritocracy have narrowed but not disappeared, new research finds
India’s caste system historically dictated access to education, occupations and wealth, creating a fundamentally unmeritocratic society in which econom...
Tuesday 7 Jul 2026
New podcast: economic lessons from history
The CAGE Research Centre has launched a new economics podcast on the making of the modern world which looks to the past to help inform the decisions we make ...
Monday 18 May 2026
School students discover what it takes to become an economist
"Being an economist isn't about being a single thing. A good economist is ready for anything and can absorb anything." Mirko Draca, CAGE Centre Director
Monday 23 Mar 2026
Research Highlights
Working papers
Development Interventions in Africa’s Historical Borderlands: Evidence from Colonial Missions
Wednesday 19 Aug 2026
Brexit and the Blitz: Conflict, Collective Memory and Populism
Wednesday 22 Jul 2026
Banking on a Corporate Rebrand
Monday 6 Jul 2026
Journal Articles
Competition and payments to African chiefs on the Gold Coast during the slave trade, 1679‒1704
The Economic History Review, 2025
Wars, taxation and representation: Evidence from five centuries of German history
Journal of the European Economic Association, 2025
An Economic History of India: Growth, Income and Inequalities from the Mughals to the 21st Century
Cambridge University Press, 2025