Call for Papers: YSI-SSSUP Economic History Conference
The Nation-State and the World Economy between Two Eras of
Globalization, 1913-1975
Tuesday 14 July - Thursday 16 July 2015
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (SSSUP), Pisa, Italy

The conference will focus on the dialectic between nation-states and
global markets during the long middle of the twentieth century, from
the peak of the first era of globalization before the First World War
to the end of the Bretton Woods System and the advent of a new wave of
financial globalization. Spanning two world wars, the Great
Depression, global decolonization and a tremendous thirty-year
economic boom, this period is of pivotal importance for understanding
today’s economic world. These six tumultuous decades have assumed a
central role in modern economic history—among others due to the
long-term analysis of Thomas Piketty—as a unique period of high
growth, low returns on capital, and declining income inequality.

The conference will focus on the conditions under which nation-states
weathered successive crises and transformations of the world economy,
pioneering new economic models and techniques of growth, trade,
taxation, and redistribution. Was the interwar era of unprecedented
crisis necessarily followed by a period of unprecedented prosperity?
If so, does this mean that the gains of the mid-century moment cannot
be repeated? Has the globalization of the last three decades changed
the relationship between the nation-state and the world economy, or
has it merely continued tendencies that were already apparent before?
And has an excessive focus on the postwar success of the West blinded
us to wider global trends in this period? We welcome papers on all of
these questions, as well as on related topics (see below for a list of
suggestions).

It is clear at the start of the twenty-first century that the
nation-state has not at all departed the historical stage; indeed, in
many ways it has returned with a vengeance, busily expanding its power
in new domains. What can we learn about the murky future of the world
economy by studying the nation-state’s mid-twentieth-century Golden
Age, if there ever was such a thing in the first place? This is one of
the underlying questions that researchers are invited to think about.

We are particularly (but not exclusively) interested in contributions
on the following themes:

·      Effects of global market forces on domestic political economy:
distribution, protectionism, inequality
·      International monetary order and political sovereignty
·      The emergence of ‘interstitial’ capitalism: capital mobility,
tax evasion and offshore assets
·      The place of democracy and political representation in the
mid-century national economy
·      Theories of the world economy and their effect on political practice
·      Bringing the economic histories of Asia, Latin America and
Africa into the Eurocentric narrative of the interwar period and the
post-war ‘Golden Age’
·      The mid-twentieth century world economy within the longer
history of globalization

Deadlines
Scholars interested in participating are invited to send a paper
abstract of no more than 400 words either to Clara Mattei
([log in to unmask]) or Nicholas Mulder
([log in to unmask]) by 21 April 2015. Accepted papers will
be notified by 1 May. Final drafts of accepted papers are due on 1
July.

Funding, travel and accommodation

Funding to meet the travel expenditures and accommodation costs of
accepted speakers will be available. The YSI Economic History
Conference will be hosted by the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, and is
generously supported by funding from the Banca d’Italia and the
Institute for New Economic Thinking.

Please Find attached the PDF version of the Call for Papers.