Open research questions in Historical Economic and Social Studies

What the literature leaves open

• The prevailing view of the connection between state capacity and executive constraints is not supported by systematic historical evidence. There is a lack of historical indices for executive constraints and fiscal capacity. The study seeks to fill this gap by constructing new indices and reevaluating the presumed connection.

  Fiscal capacity and executive constraints in early modern Europe · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in understanding how urban development shapes long-run trajectories. The study highlights the limitations of Smith's conjectural history. The paper seeks to address the question of how towns drove political and economic development in medieval Europe.

  Adam Smith and the role of the towns in feudal Europe · 2026 · DOI

• The synthetic control method may not fully capture the complexities of the economy, - The study relies on a limited number of donor countries, - The study does not account for potential retrospection effects

  An almost laboratory experiment: John Cowperthwaite and Hong Kong’s economic prosperity · 2026 · DOI

• Further research could explore the impact of Cowperthwaite's policies on other economic outcomes, - Additional studies could examine the effects of similar policies in other countries

  An almost laboratory experiment: John Cowperthwaite and Hong Kong’s economic prosperity · 2026 · DOI

• Training that treats The Industrial Revolution and the Great Divergence as a settled body of findings misrepresents its condition; training that treats it as all open questions fails to convey what has been secured.

  Steam, Coal, and the Great Split: A Historical Development Review of The Industrial Revolution and the Great Divergence · 2026 · DOI

• This article reexamines a pivotal yet understudied episode in Sino-British relations: the British East India Company's 1759 petition to the Qing Emperor.

  James Flint and the 1759 Petition: The Influence of British Intermediaries on the East India Company's China Trade and Sino-British Encounters · 2025 · DOI

• As long as work and pensions for the elderly were scarce, dependence on chil- dren in old age prevailed.

  Family Security or Social Security? The Family and the Elderly in New York State During the 1920s · 1986 · DOI

• The study faces the challenge of reconstructing land inequality from historical data. The research must address the complexity of institutional and geographic factors shaping land concentration. The study needs to consider the limitations of the dataset and the potential biases in the analysis.

  Geography, institutions, and market: Explaining pre-industrial land inequality in mid-19 th -century northeastern Spain · 2026 · DOI

• The study is limited to the analysis of land inequality in mid-19th-century Aragon, northeastern Spain. The dataset is restricted to the amillaramientos, which may not capture all aspects of land ownership and inequality. The study does not provide a comprehensive analysis of the impact of industrialisation on land inequality.

  Geography, institutions, and market: Explaining pre-industrial land inequality in mid-19 th -century northeastern Spain · 2026 · DOI

• Future research could explore the application of the paper's findings to other maritime spaces. It could examine the implications of the paper's conclusions for the development of more effective governance structures for maritime spaces.

  Contested seas: Legitimacy, local power and resource exploitation in the territorialisation of early modern galicia maritime space · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the role of local entities in shaping the territorialisation of maritime space. It highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between state sovereignty and maritime space.

  Contested seas: Legitimacy, local power and resource exploitation in the territorialisation of early modern galicia maritime space · 2026 · DOI

• Future studies could analyze data from other regions and time periods. Future research could explore the implications of the study's findings for family dynamics and relationships.

  The historical demography of the multigenerational family: Evidence from crowdsourced genealogies · 2026 · DOI

• There is a gap in knowledge about the demographic history of multigenerational families before the 20th century. Previous studies have focused on the changing demography of grandparent-grandchild relations in the 20th and 21st centuries.

  The historical demography of the multigenerational family: Evidence from crowdsourced genealogies · 2026 · DOI

• Few researchers have studied both the Flying Shuttle and the Spinning Jenny together and made a comparison across multiple dimensions. There is a lack of qualitative definition of the Flying Shuttle and the Spinning Jenny's role in the First Industrial Revolution.

  To what extent did the invention of the flying shuttle and the Spinning Jenny affect the textiles industry in Britain during the First Industrial Revolution? · 2026 · DOI

• The measurement of economic welfare in preindustrial societies has focused on the income side of the welfare equation. Estimates of the cost of living have remained anchored to stylized consumption bundles.

  Beyond subsistence: measuring the cost of respectable living in eighteenth-century Seville · 2026 · DOI

• Whilst the education–innovation nexus was explored in previous research, the relationship between the diffusion of vocational and technical education (VTE) and inventive activity has not been assessed.

  Catching the technological frontier? Vocational and technical education (VTE) and inventive activity in Italy, 1861–1911 · 2026 · DOI

• Future research could explore the role of social entrepreneurship in other historical periods. It could also examine the impact of social entrepreneurship on contemporary social and economic issues.

  Social entrepreneurship and the social economy of Victorian and Edwardian Britain · 2025 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in our understanding of the role of social entrepreneurship in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. It argues that prior research has overlooked the significance of social entrepreneurship in this period.

  Social entrepreneurship and the social economy of Victorian and Edwardian Britain · 2025 · DOI

• The census enumerators' books (CEBs) have provided fertile ground for studies of workhouse populations in recent years, though it has been acknowledged that work remains to be done on different regions and periods to develop our understanding of these institutions and the paupers who resided therein.

  Workhouse Populations of the Preston Union, 1841–61 · 2014 · DOI

• The evolution of financial market institutions in response to the demands of late-nineteenth-century industrialization has been studied in some detail (Davis 1965; Sylla 1969; James 1978; Snowden 1987, 1988), but relatively little is known about the history of labor market institutions after the Civil War.

  Looking for Work, Searching for Workers: U.S. Labor Markets after the Civil War · 1994 · DOI

• The gap in understanding why transportation produced angry reactions but was maintained until 1775 - The need to relate attitudes to the English legal system and colonial context

  English and American Attitudes Towards Convict Transportation 1718–1775* · 1987 · DOI

• The paper notes that the data necessary for the calculation of age-specific marital fertility schedules are lacking. The paper also notes that the causal links between fertility and infant mortality are not strong and are two-way. The paper acknowledges that the analysis is limited by the availability of data.

  Approaches to the Fertility Transition in Victorian England · 1987 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in our understanding of the causes of the historical fertility transition in Victorian England. The paper notes that existing approaches have limitations and that a new framework is needed. The paper seeks to fill this gap by presenting a broader perspective and new insights.

  Approaches to the Fertility Transition in Victorian England · 1987 · DOI

• The novelty of the statutory mortgage debenture made it challenging for the courts to resolve related matters. The debenture was a new concept, distinct from existing forms of security.

  Statutory railway mortgage debentures and the courts in the nineteenth century · 1987 · DOI

• The gap in the historical development of the law regarding reparation for pure economic loss is identified. The lack of examination of the earlier development of the law in the case of Junior Books Ltd. v. The Veitchi Co.Ltd. is noted.

  Reparation for pure economic loss: An historical perspective of Scots law in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries · 1987 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Historical Economic and Social Studies

• Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England · The Journal of Economic History · 1989 · 2,883 citations
• Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · 2002 · 2,407 citations
• The Tragedy of the Commons: Twenty-two years later · Human Ecology · 1990 · 768 citations
• Why did the Elites Extend the Suffrage? Democracy and the Scope of Government, with an Application to Britain's "Age of Reform" · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · 2004 · 450 citations
• Geographies of Financial Exclusion: Financial Abandonment in Britain and the United States · Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers · 1995 · 447 citations
• Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England · Osiris · 1938 · 368 citations
• Eighteenth‐century English society: Class struggle without class? · Social History · 1978 · 349 citations
• How Did Colonialism Dispossess? Comments from an Edge of Empire · Annals of the Association of American Geographers · 2004 · 255 citations
• The long march of history: Farm wages, population, and economic growth, England 1209–18691 · The Economic History Review · 2006 · 217 citations
• Why Not Equal Protection? Explaining the Politics of Public Social Spending in Britain, 1900-1911, and the United States, 1880s-1920 · American Sociological Review · 1984 · 216 citations

Most recent work

• Castles · European Economic Review · 2026
• Fiscal capacity and executive constraints in early modern Europe · Public Choice · 2026
• Adam Smith and the role of the towns in feudal Europe · Public Choice · 2026
• Sick leave in the United Kingdom Post Office, 1850–1908 · The Economic History Review · 2026
• The commercialization of labour markets: Evidence from wage inequality in the Middle Ages · The Economic History Review · 2026
• Discovering ‘Immigration Control’ in England, c. 1540 – c. 1640 · The Historical Journal · 2026
• The takeover of public goods provision: Lighthouses in the Early American Republic · Journal of Comparative Economics · 2026
• Political Sophistication in Industrial Birmingham: Reappraising Brass Manufacturers’ Campaign Against Thomas Williams, 1799–1801 · Midland History · 2026
• Geography, institutions, and market: Explaining pre-industrial land inequality in mid-19 th -century northeastern Spain · Rural History · 2026
• WOMEN'S RESERVATION AND DELIMITATION: ASSESSING THE CONDITIONAL IMPIMENTATION UNDER THE 106TH CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026

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