An interdisciplinary research group in economic history and comparative development at the University of Manchester.

1st October 1979: The Nobel Prize winner for Economic Science, Sir Arthur Lewis. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
1st October 1979: The Nobel Prize winner for Economic Science, Sir Arthur Lewis. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

The Lewis Lab seeks to advance cutting-edge research on economic growth, political economy of development, and global inequalities from a long-run historical perspective.

Our aim is to become a leading centre for the study of important questions in these fields, building on the legacy of our association with Sir W. Arthur Lewis, Nobel laureate in Economics, faculty member of the Department of Economics at The University of Manchester between 1947 and 1957.

The founding members of the lab, Nuno Palma and Guillaume Blanc, currently serve as Director and Deputy Director, respectively.

Our people

Leadership

  • Nuno Palma - Director, Arthur Lewis Lab and Professor of Economics
  • Guillaume Blanc - Deputy Director, Arthur Lewis Lab and Lecturer in Economics

Scientific council

Faculty members

External members

Visiting professors

  • François Velde (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago) - Hallsworth Visiting Professor - Spring 2022
  • Richard Von Glahn (University of California, Los Angeles) - Hallsworth Visiting Professor - Fall 2022
  • Peter Murrell (University of Maryland) - Hallsworth Visiting Professor - Spring 2024
  • David de la Croix (Université catholique de Louvain) - Hallsworth Visiting Professor - Fall 2024

Students and postgraduate researchers

Present

Past

  • Hélder Carvalhal - Postdoctoral Fellow (2022-2024). Placement: Marie Curie Fellow, International Institute of Social History, KNAW, Amsterdam
  • Meng Wu - British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2024). Placement: Assistant Professor, Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Carlos Javier Charotti - PhD student (2019-2023). Placement: Senior Researcher in the Research Department of the Central Bank of Paraguay

Events and working paper series

Seminars

Autumn 2024

  • October 3: Joan Roses (LSE)
  • October 10: Andrea Papadia (York)
  • October 17: Vladimir Avetian (PSL)
  • October 24: John Tang (Utrecht)
  • November 7: David de la Croix (UCLouvain)
  • November 28: Nathan Lane (Oxford)
  • December 5: Valeria Rueda (Nottingham)

Spring 2025

  • January 23: Calumet Links (Stellenbosch)
  • January 30: Joe Francis (Birmingham)
  • February 6: Rebecca Simson (Oxford)
  • February 13: Nikolaus Wolf (Humboldt)
  • February 20: Willem Jongman (Groningen)
  • February 27: Michiel de Haas (Wageningen)
  • March 6: Chris Dyer (Leicester)
  • March 20: Mounir Karadja (Uppsala)
  • March 27: Toke Aidt (Cambridge)
  • April 3: Giuseppe de Feo (Liverpool)
  • April 10: Lisbeth Rodrigues (Lisboa)
  • May 8: Jason Lennard (LSE)
  • May 15: Sheilagh Ogilvie (Oxford)
  • May 22: Denis Cogneau (PSE)
  • May 28: Marc Flandreau (Penn)

Past

  • Lewis Lab Seminars 2023-2024 Alan Fernihough (QUB); Felix Kersting (Humboldt); Romain Wacziarg (UCLA); Pablo Fernández Cebrián (Wageningen); David Chilosi (KCL); Raphael Franck (Hebrew University); Phil Roessner (Manchester); Debin Ma (Oxford); Guilherme Lambais (ICS); Patrick Wallis (LSE); Timur Natkhov (HSE); Neil Cummins (LSE); Adrien Montalbo (Sussex); Nadia Matringe (LSE); Bishnupriya Gupta (Warwick); Mohamed Saleh (LSE); Eric Melander (Birmingham); Lars Boerner (MLU Halle-Wittenberg); François Velde (Chicago FED); Mattia Bertazzini (Notthingham); Pete Maw (Leeds); Leticia Arroyo Abad (CUNY); Peter Murrell (Maryland)
  • Lewis Lab Seminars 2022-2023 Brian Varian (Newcastle); Richard von Glahn (UCLA); Luz Marina Arias (Sheffield); Catherine Casson (Manchester); John Wallis (Maryland); Sean Bottomley (Northumbria); Thilo Huning (York); James Robinson (Chicago); Edmond Smith (Manchester); David N. Weil (Brown); André Silva (Nova SBE); Melanie Xue (LSE); Soeren Henn (Newcastle); Eric Chaney (Oxford); Xiaobing Wang (Manchester)
  • Job Market Seminars 2022-2023 Jordi Caum Julio (Barcelona); Gianni Marciante (Warwick); Daniela Sola (CEMFI); Peiyuan Li (Colorado Boulder)

The Hajnal Lecture

The Hajnal Lecture

The Hajnal Lecture, held at the Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development at the University of Manchester, celebrates the exceptional work of early- and mid-career scholars who have made significant contributions to the field of economic history. A written version of the lecture will be published in The Manchester School, a renowned journal known for its high-quality research in all fields of economics. This initiative honours the significant contributions of John Hajnal to historical demography and his influential period as a Simon Fellow at our university during the 1950s.

Present and future

TBA

Past

  • The Hajnal Lecture 2024 - Prof. Noam Yuchtman (Oxford)

The inaugural lecture, titled "Protests on Campus: The Political Economy of Universities and Social Movements," was delivered on Thursday, May 9, 2024, by Noam Yuchtman, the Drummond Professor of Political Economy at the University of Oxford and All Souls College. Professor Yuchtman's research covers a broad spectrum of topics in political economy and economic history, including the drivers of political ideology and participation in political movements, the impact of educational content in the process of development, the effects of social interactions on economic and political behavior, and the role of the state in promoting economic growth and innovation.

Conferences and lectures

Present and future

  • Lecture #3 - TBA - February 12 2025

Speaker: Gregory Clark (SDU)

Past

  • Lecture #2 - The Industrious Revolution Reconsidered - October 23 2024

Speaker: Jan de Vries (UC Berkeley)

Keynote speakers: Gerard Roland (Berkeley), Richard Rogerson (Princeton)

Keynote speakers: Gary Cox (Stanford), Christine Desan (Harvard), Nuno Garoupa (GMU), Peter Murrell (Maryland) 

Keynote speakers: Marlous van Waijenburg (Harvard), Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton), Jacob Weisdorf (Sapienza)

Speaker: Deirdre N. McCloskey (Cato Institute and UIC)

Keynote speakers: Michela Giorcelli (UCLA) and John Van Reenen (LSE and MIT)

Keynote speakers: James A. Robinson (Chicago) and Walter Scheidel (Stanford)

Keynote speakers: Stephen Broadberry (Oxford) and Richard von Glahn (UCLA)

 

Graduate student workshops

Present and future

Student participants: Resuf Ahmed (HEC Lausanne), Donia Kamel (PSE), Masahiro Kubo (CERDI), Marta Morando (LSE), Benjamin Tremblay-Auger (Stanford GSB), Natalia Vasilenok (Stanford), Jen-Kuan Wang (Penn State), Yangkeun Yun (UCLA)

Faculty participants: Guillaume Blanc (Manchester), David de la Croix (Louvain), Jean Lacroix (Saclay), Etienne Le Rossignol (Namur), Nuno Palma (Manchester), Mohamed Saleh (LSE), Ákos Valentinyi (Manchester), Daniela Vidart (Connecticut)

Past

Student participants: Bakhtawar Ali (Aix-Marseille), Mohib Ali (Siena), Alice Calder (UNSW), Tommaso D'Amelio (ECARES), Mattias Folkestad (IIES), Nina Liu (KCL), Ryu Matsuura (Northwestern), Matthias Weigand (Harvard)

Faculty participants: Guillaume Blanc (Manchester), Mathias Bühler (LMU), Bjorn Brey (Oxford), Joanne Haddad (ECARES), Sultan Mehmood (NES), Eric Melander (Birmingham) Agustina Paglayan (UCSD), Nuno Palma (Manchester), Henrik Sigstad (BI)

Student participants: Joseph Enguehard (ENS Lyon), Adrian Nicholas Gachet (Manchester), Guilherme Berse Rodrigues Lambais (ICS), Jade Ponsard (Aix-Marseille), Carla Salvo (Sapienza), Miriam Venturini (Zurich), Hillary Vipond (LSE), Jinlin Wei (Warwick), Guillermo Woo-Mora (PSE)

Faculty participants: Lydia Assouad (LSE), Guillaume Blanc (Manchester), Dan Bogart (UC Irvine), James Fenske (Warwick), Soeren Henn (Newcastle), Yuzuru Kumon (NHH), Sebastian Ottinger (CERGE-EI), Nuno Palma (Manchester), James Robinson (Chicago

Working papers

The Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development logo

Visit our YouTube channel to access recordings of our past events, and follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our mailing list and calendar (ical) to keep up to date with our activities.