AHEC News

Forthcoming Asian Historical Economics Conference

The next AHEC conference, which will be the fourth one since it started in Hitotsubashi University in 2007, will be held on 13-15 September 2012, in Tokyo. It will be hosted by the Global COE Program “Research Unit for Statistical and Empirical Analysis in Social Sciences” (G-COE Hi-Stat), Hitotsubashi University.

Objectives

Today's global economic development and integration through trade and investment are deeply rooted in history, particularly since the modern industrial development that started in Europe from the late 18th century. Understanding how the economies of all the major regions of Asia developed through their own internal dynamics, as well as through interaction with the western industrial powers, is important for understanding these economies today and in the future.

The conference in Tokyo is the fourth in a series which began at Hitotsubashi University in 2007 and continued with meetings at Venice in 2008 and Beijing in 2010. At Beijing, a decision was taken to establish an Asian Historical Economics Society to organise a biennial conference, with an open call for papers. This fourth conference in Tokyo thus builds on the success of the earlier conferences but also marks the beginning of a new phase with wider participation. The conference aims to bring together researchers working on the economic history of all the main regions of Asia, as well as those comparing Asia with other regions.

The conference will build on a number of themes where research is currently active, including (but not restricted to): the Great Divergence between Asia and Europe; economic crises; the role of the state; financial development and economic performance; new interpretations of the colonial legacy; labour-intensive industrialization; agriculture and economic development; the role of institutions and institutional change; women and the economy; human capital, demographic transitions and migration; international trade and industrialisation in Asian economies; the development of traditional and modern industries; market integration and the impact of globalization; historical national accounts for Asian economies; international comparison of income, output and productivity; climate change and the economy.