ABSTRACT This article provides a political-economic historical analysis of Cambodian labor migration to Thailand, challenging the explanatory sufficiency of the neoclassical push-pull paradigm that dominates existing scholarship. While acknowledging the descriptive utility of push-pull models in mapping proximate migration determinants, the study argues that the structural vulnerability of the Cambodian labor force – conventionally treated as exogenous ‘push’ factors – is itself the path-dependent product of three interconnected, state-driven transformations spanning 1975 to 2019. The first stage examines the comprehensive institutional disruption during the Democratic Kampuchea period (1975–1979), which severely depleted human capital and dismantled all formal labor governance structures. The second stage analyzes the internationally influenced post-conflict reconstruction of the 1990s, which produced a structurally bifurcated ‘dual-labor regime’ concentrating effective labor protections within a narrow export-oriented garment enclave while leaving the vast rural workforce institutionally unprotected. The third stage investigates the post-2000 formalization of labor export through a privatized regulatory architecture characterized by significant governance gaps. Drawing on primary legal texts, demographic data, and empirical human rights documentation, the article demonstrates that the systemic exploitation of Cambodian migrant workers abroad is closely connected to this domestic political-economic trajectory, thereby historicizing the foundational categories that equilibrium-based migration frameworks take as given.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the financial structure, legal foundations and social role of Ottoman cash waqfs using a rare fully audited ledger from Kocaeli (1872). Moving beyond the predominantly normative and jurisprudential orientation of the existing literature, this study offers evidence-based insights into how these institutions operated as community-based financial intermediaries, mobilized endowed capital through Sharia-compliant mechanisms such as istiglal and broadened access to finance in local communities. Design/methodology/approach The analysis uses a streamlined mixed-methods framework that combines qualitative institutional assessments with transparent, descriptive quantitative tools. The audited ledger was examined using historical accounting methods and analyzed using descriptive statistics, concentration measures (Gini coefficients and Lorenz curves) and correlation analysis to assess the distributions of capital, financial sustainability and borrower characteristics. All techniques were selected to match the structure and limitations of the historical data. Findings The audited ledger records 39 cash waqfs administering a combined principal of 1,093,620 gurus. More than 97% of this capital was allocated through Sharia-compliant istiglal contracts, which generated returns in the range of 10%–20%. The distribution of credit reveals a wide socioeconomic and cross-communal outreach: peasants constituted the largest category of borrowers (41%), followed by artisans and traders (26%). Although larger mosque waqfs controlled the bulk of the total capital, smaller neighborhood waqfs exhibited markedly higher lending efficiency. The resulting surpluses were systematically reinvested in educational, infrastructural and welfare-oriented initiatives. Practical implications The operational features of Ottoman cash waqfs reflect principles that are central to contemporary Islamic microfinance and ethical finance, including local resource mobilization, risk sharing, community-based governance and the integration of financial activity with social welfare provision. These historical insights offer meaningful design implications for modern Islamic microfinance institutions, waqf-based social investment frameworks and community-oriented fintech initiatives. Originality/value Empirical studies that reconstruct the financial operations of Ottoman cash waqfs remain scarce. Most existing research relies on foundation deeds or court records rather than audited financial data. By analyzing a fully audited ledger, this study provides rare quantitative evidence on operational performance, capital allocation and socioeconomic outreach. It thereby offers a more robust empirical assessment of historical Islamic financial institutions and contributes new insights to both Ottoman economic history and modern Islamic finance literature.

ABSTRACT Amending the Companies Act 1956 in India, the Companies (Amendment) Act 1960 represented an abrupt departure from the free-market policy of the colonial-era towards greater state control. It also extensively criminalised the Act, leading to a dramatic expansion of penal control over companies, the focus of this study. Relying on popular characterisations of post-colonial Indian economic history, company law scholarship attributes this policy shift to the state's intensifying socialist and dirigiste tendencies. Despite the Amendment's significance, this reliance has led to a limited analysis of its legislative history and the political-economic factors that triggered the shift. By contextualising the Companies (Amendment) Act 1960 within debates on post-colonial economic historiography, this study reinterprets the existing narrative in company law. It argues that while ideological considerations played a role, the expansion of penal control in 1960 was largely politically driven, particularly in response to the Mundhra Scandal that erupted in 1957.

Introduction to the Symposium on the 21st STOREP Conference: ‘Why Inequalities Grow: Value and Distribution in the History of Economic Thought’

In the second half of the 1950s in China were debates about the shortcomings of the economic education system established according to the Soviet model. Some professional economists criticized the postulates of Marxist political economy and called for the use of useful components of Western economics. They considered the Soviet version of Marxism unsuitable for solving China’s practical problems, pointed out the low level and absence of theoretical achievements of economic science in the USSR, and called on the authorities to ease the ideological and educational pressure on the economic community. The supporters of this viewpoint were labeled “rightists” dreaming about restoring capitalism in China, and the Chinese interpretations of Malthusianism and the theory of interest were criticized. Marxists blamed the Soviet educational model for dogmatism and disconnection from Chinese reality; its influence served as explanation of teachers’ one-sided attention to foreign economic history with insufficient interest in current issues of the development of the PRC. The recommendations to fill the courses with Chinese materials, to rethink the template of the Soviet political economy textbook, to strengthen the class character of the education, and to pay more attention to exposing “reactionary” economic theories came to the fore. The disputes of 1957–1958 enhanced the line of bringing economic theory closer to practice, popularizing Marxist political economy, and combining the political training with professional education. The main direction of changes was the Sinicization of the Soviet system of economic education without completely rejecting it. The intensification of ideological criticism in the field of economic science, along with the active promotion of political economy among the masses, has led to simplification of the interpretation of theoretical issues.

This article argues that Ottoman economic and business history can serve Islamic economics not merely as a source of illustration or normative affirmation, but as a historically grounded analytical setting capable of informing theory-building, mechanism specification, and research design. Although Ottoman practices are frequently referenced in Islamic economics, they are typically invoked episodically and at illustrative or thematic levels, rather than being mobilized to sharpen concepts, explain institutional mechanisms, or guide empirical inquiry. Building on thematic and institutional approaches in Ottoman economic historiography, the article synthesizes seven core domains, markets and regulation, state-market relations, entrepreneurship and commercial networks, guild organization, finance and credit practices, waqf-based provisioning, and legal-institutional pluralism, and demonstrates how each can be translated into analytically usable components for Islamic economics. Rather than attributing economic outcomes to religious doctrine, the article adopts a non-essentialist institutional perspective in which historical trajectories emerge from contingent interactions among legal forms, enforcement arenas, political authority, and organizational complements. This study presents a proposed methodological research framework for systematically classifying 38 publications (n=38) related to the Ottoman period in the literature on Islamic economics. The article develops testable hypotheses to examine the practical application of Islamic norms and demonstrates how historical sources such as Sharia court records and waqf deeds can be used in this process. By rethinking the Ottoman experience as a robust empirical context, the study aims to deepen the field’s analytical depth and institutional foundations.

Economic History of the European Energy Industry: Lighting up Western Europe, 19th to 21st Centuries. Edited by Alberte Martínez-López, Jesús Mirás-Araujo, and Nuria Rodríguez-Martín. London and New York: Routledge (Explorations in Economic History), 2025. Pp. 216. £145.00, hardback.

The Light Letters collection represents the largest and most significant corpus of surviving Malay correspondence, yet remains underutilised in scholarly discourse. In particular, these documents have not been fully explored in relation to Terengganu’s economic history during the transformative decades at the end of the 18th century, marked by increasing British influence through commercial activities. This raises a critical inquiry into Terengganu’s position within the evolving trade landscape of the late eighteenth century, and its role in regional and international maritime networks, particularly in the context of intensifying European commercial ambitions and expanding imperial interests in Asia. This study adopts a qualitative historical approach by analysing primary source documents—specifically the transliterated Light Letters housed at the Universiti Sains Malaysia Library. Focusing on selected letters related to Terengganu, the article argues that Terengganu played a pivotal role in both regional and global trade. Francis Light and his commercial associates were dependent on Terengganu for trade goods (pepper and tin) and capital collaboration through ship leasing or purchases and cargo sharing. These commercial partnerships enabled Terengganu to engage in long-distance trade with regions such as China and India. Accordingly, the Light Letters constitute an essential source for the study of Terengganu’s history, particularly with regard to its economic dimensions in the closing decades of the eighteenth century.

In terms of education quality, school education plays a significant role, and under this, the senior secondary student category is a unique turning point that creates skilled human resources for the near future. Both internal and external economic shocks directly disrupt the smooth functioning of quality education in any economy; in line with this, the negative impact of the economic crisis creates a tragedy in the quality of education. This study's objective is to determine the effect of the current economic crisis in Sri Lanka on the quality of senior secondary education during the worst economic crisis in the economic history of independent Sri Lanka. For this study, 396 senior secondary students and 792 of their parents were randomly selected from 21 government schools under three school types in the Monaragala district, and data were collected through structured questionnaires via telephonic interviews. Factor analysis was employed to construct the dependent variable-education quality-while ordinary least squares linear multiple regression analysis was utilised to assess the impact of economic crisis on education quality. Factor analysis revealed that both reliability, consistency and validity are statistically significant with higher responsiveness, and there is a significant influence on the education quality of the model. In the regression analysis, the three proxies indicating the economic crises of the country are increasing household income generation time of parents, students attending household income generation, and students' annual private education cost. In alignment with this, key analysis revealed that increasing the household income generation time of parents and students attending household income generation has created a considerable negative impact on education quality. But during the economic crisis, students' annual private education costs have created very minimal positive effects on education quality. Aside from that, during the economic crisis, parents with a poor monthly income have been actively involved in secondary jobs. Moreover, during the crisis period, 254 Ordinary Level students had scored less than 55 in science, mathematics, and English subjects, while 48 Advanced Level students failed at least one subject. Under the policy recommendations, the social safety net should be systematic, ensure the teaching and learning basics, and have continuous research and development processes for school regulation and facilitation in order to ensure consistency in quality education during a crisis.

Does the location of a state relative to others matter? We argue that a state’s location can affect its bargaining power, and thus multilateral relations if trade costs depend on trade routes that pass through other states. This is an important, yet neglected aspect of economic history. We show how an exogenous border change—caused by Britain’s intervention at Vienna in 1815—affected the location and trade routes of Prussia and other German states. We find that this border change led to the formation of the first customs union in history, the German Zollverein of 1834.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to clarify how Cambodian teachers recognise the history of the Khmer Rouge when viewed through the prism of their lived experience. This paper draws on interviews with secondary school history teachers who teach the history of the Khmer Rouge era to the next generation. To achieve this purpose, I formulated two research questions: (1) How did the teachers acquire knowledge of the history of the Khmer Rouge? (2) What educational value do teachers place on the teaching of Khmer Rouge history? Design/methodology/approach I conducted interviews with 11 secondary school history teachers. I then constructed life histories from the interview data to analyse how the teachers' experiences and thoughts both shaped and transformed their historical understanding. Findings One teacher from a generation generally considered to have no real experience of the Khmer Rouge era had experienced the Khmer Rouge invasion and clashes with her village in her childhood. Another teacher had been educated in anti-Pol Pot ideology, but in his later educational activities, he valued teaching Khmer Rouge history as an education in the value of peace. This study reveals that many teachers had diverse experiences that cannot be summarised as generational theory, but all teachers valued Khmer Rouge history education as a way to teach their students about peace. Detailed analysis of the teachers' narratives also revealed that their values such as education for peace were diverse. Research limitations/implications One limitation of this study is that it did not examine how history was transmitted during the Khmer Rouge era in relation to Cambodia's broader political, social and economic history. Although perceptions and values based on individual experiences are also tied to a broader context, the focus of this study was specifically on history education. Originality/value The findings are significant in showing differences in the historical understanding of the public and of teachers. Studying teachers' life histories recaptures and restores the value of education in a particular context.

<i>Science, Technology, and Innovation in the History of Economic Thought</i> eds. by Estrella Trincado Aznar and Fernando López Castellano

This ‘conversation’ with John Wood depicts him vividly as about as much of a Renaissance Man as it is possible to be in our modern world of specialisation and compartmentalisation. It brings out, moreover, some surreal episodes in his experiences. The knife-edge struggle for approval of his DPhil thesis; his contributions to the history of economic thought; a player in the turbulent Hawke prime ministerial office; and the zigging and zagging to/from academia. He has had an incredibly active professional career in international education that certainly exceeded in scope and impact that of a conventional historian of economics.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) represents the most ambitious integration project in Africa’s contemporary economic history, carrying the potential to reshape regional supply chains and reposition the continent within global trade dynamics. Yet the extent to which the agreement can deliver meaningful competitiveness hinges on how effectively African economies leverage its provisions to deepen productive linkages, harmonise regulatory frameworks, and stimulate cross-border industrial cooperation. This study examines the strategic pathways through which AfCFTA can serve as a catalyst for supply chain integration across the continent, with particular attention to the institutional, infrastructural, and policy foundations required for its success. Drawing on comparative experiences from established regional blocs including the European Union, ASEAN, and the USMCA, the research highlights global lessons that can inform Africa’s own integration trajectory. The paper also interrogates the current structure of intra-African trade, identifying persistent fragmentation, limited manufacturing depth, and infrastructural deficits as major impediments to cohesive regional value chains. Within this context, the AfCFTA’s core protocols on trade in goods, services, investment, and digital commerce are analysed as critical tools capable of reducing transaction costs, creating market predictability, and fostering cross-border production networks. The study further evaluates the enabling role of trade facilitation, logistics optimisation, digital transformation, and sustainable financing in building resilient supply chains that can withstand global shocks. The paper argues that realising the competitiveness promise of AfCFTA requires coordinated policy alignment, targeted investments in regional infrastructure, and a deliberate shift towards technology-driven industrialisation. By outlining concrete strategic priorities, the study contributes to ongoing debates on Africa’s integration agenda and offers actionable insights for governments, private sector actors, and development institutions committed to strengthening the continent’s position in global value chains.

Digitized historical newspapers are a promising source for economic, social, and political history. In spite of the fact that many historical newspapers are available today in some digitized form, their quantitative analysis has only sporadically found its way into the canon of scientific methods and is far from becoming a standard approach, mostly due to access limitations and unsuitable data formats for digital analysis. We propose to re-process large quantities of digital images of newspapers into a better machine-readable and paragraph-segmented form and use topic modeling techniques to identify and track topics in newspapers over time and to create topic-specific sub-corpora. This approach will serve to identify relevant articles for any number of further research questions in a mere matter of hours, eliminating months of flicking through web-viewers or copying results from keyword searches. Most topic models are designed for smaller corpora. Since historical newspapers are now available in enormous quantities, their applicability stands to be questioned. We create a large dataset by re-processing all digitally available pages of the Kölnische Zeitung, consisting of 425,194 pages from 1803--1945. Subsequently, we investigate the application of four different topic models (Gensim LDA, tomotopy LDA, LeetTopic and BERTopic) on this large dataset, to demonstrate their (un)suitability for processing datasets of this scale. Among these methods, the tomotopy LDA implementation proves most reliable on large datasets. We show that topic modeling can easily isolate sections of the newspaper which are of particular interest to researchers, like trade registry entries and various kinds of labor market ads, but can also identify and isolate prominent political topics in the newspaper articles.

Special issue: Gender in Economic History

ABSTRACT Few would disagree that the English language accounting history literature on double entry accounting before 1800 is descriptive, uncritical, partial, and lacks explanations for the practices adopted by its users. During much of that period, double entry was not used to produce financial statements. Profit was rarely calculated, never accurately. The dominant view in this literature was expressed several times by economist and accounting historian, Basil Yamey: double entry only became useful in the 19th century when financial statements for shareholders were produced; double entry served no useful purpose before then. Countering claims of the economic historian of medieval Venice, Frederic Lane, Yamey denied that double entry could ever have enabled desk-bound merchants to address the principal-agent problem. Yamey was unwilling to consider factual evidence later presented by Lane. This paper presents newly discovered evidence supporting Lane’s argument that double entry accounting served a crucially important role long before 1800. JEL Classifications: M41; N83.

Abstract Astrophysics is mostly done not-for-profit; a cosmologist and an economic historian consider why this should be so

Abstract Recent research in economic history argues for using a household life cycle standard‐of‐living approach that includes the income and expenses of all household members and considers fluctuations in the household over the life course. This study builds on that approach by empirically examining the development of living standards in male‐headed households in Stockholm 1800–80, linking individuals and their households in the tax records throughout the life cycle. We compile a random sample of approximately 400 male‐headed households to examine how living standards developed and whether they were able to save to mitigate income decline in old age. Distinguishing between manual‐ and non‐manual‐worker households, this study finds that the manual‐worker household size outgrew income in early adulthood, creating a temporary downturn in welfare ratios. Living standards rose in subsequent stages but declined again when the head of the household approached old age. Manual‐worker households suffered a more pronounced decline in income during these later years than non‐manual‐worker households. The latter had better opportunities to smooth consumption over the life cycle by setting money aside, although manual‐worker households that survived into old age had some capacity for small savings, which may have eased but not offset the decline.

This article presents a historiographical review of the formation of the rural working class in Brazil during Getúlio Vargas' first government, specifically from 1932 to 1937, using E.P. Thompson's methodological perspective in dialogue with Economic History. The study examines how contemporary historiography has interpreted state policies, economic transformations, and forms of rural workers' resistance during this period. The analysis demonstrates that recent academic production contests the traditional thesis of "rural exclusion" during the Vargas period, revealing through documentary evidence that the government developed specific policies to reorganize social relations in the Brazilian countryside. It concludes by identifying gaps in historiography and proposing directions for future research based on primary sources.