Cliometrics Society

Cliometrics Society
Name	Cliometrics Society
Formation	1970s
Type	Learned society
Purpose	Promote quantitative economic history
Headquarters	United States
Region served	International
Leader title	President

Contents

Cliometrics Society is an international learned society dedicated to the development and application of quantitative methods to historical research. The Society brings together scholars who apply statistical techniques, econometric models, and formal theory to questions about the past, connecting traditions associated with names such as Robert Fogel, Douglass North, Cliometrics pioneers and later figures like Daron Acemoglu and Avner Greif. It engages with institutions including National Bureau of Economic Research, American Economic Association, Economic History Association, and universities such as Harvard University, University of Chicago, London School of Economics, and Stanford University.

History

The origins of the Society trace to debates in the 1960s and 1970s that linked methods advanced by scholars like Robert Fogel, Douglass North, Simon Kuznets, Angus Maddison, Stanley Engerman and Kenneth Sokoloff with institutional platforms such as the National Bureau of Economic Research and journals like Journal of Economic History and Economic History Review. Early gatherings brought together researchers influenced by work on subjects including the Agricultural Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Atlantic slave trade, and the American Civil War. Over subsequent decades the Society interacted with programs at Princeton University, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, University of Michigan and international centers such as Paris School of Economics and University of Oxford. Key methodological exchanges connected cliometricians with figures associated with Cowles Commission, Econometric Society, and the development of computational tools from entities like RAND Corporation.

The Society’s mission emphasizes rigorous quantitative analysis of historical questions, fostering work that links positivist traditions exemplified by Robert Fogel and Douglass North with contemporary approaches from James Heckman, Joshua Angrist, Guido Imbens, and Daron Acemoglu. Activities include promoting research on topics such as European colonization of the Americas, Industrialization in Britain, Great Depression, Demographic transition, Long nineteenth century, and comparative work on regions like Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and South Asia. The Society supports pedagogy by connecting members to archives like National Archives and Records Administration, datasets such as IPUMS, and computational infrastructures developed at centers including Harvard Dataverse and ICPSR.

Governance typically follows a structure of elected officers—President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer—and an advisory council drawn from scholars at institutions such as University of California, Los Angeles, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, University of Cambridge, New York University, University of Toronto and Australian National University. Membership comprises academics, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students whose work intersects with figures like Elinor Ostrom, Robert Solow, Paul Samuelson, Milton Friedman, Simon Kuznets and organizations including the Economic History Association and Royal Historical Society. The Society collaborates with journals and funders such as National Science Foundation, Economic History Review, Journal of Economic History, and Explorations in Economic History.

Annual meetings and workshops bring together scholars for panels, poster sessions, and training in methods linked to Econometric Society summer schools, NBER conferences, and specialized workshops at London School of Economics, University of Chicago, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University and regional centers in Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Tokyo and Delhi. Sessions often honor influential figures such as Robert Fogel and Douglass North and showcase research that engages with episodes like Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution, Meiji Restoration, Reconquista, Spanish colonization of the Americas, Transatlantic slave trade and events studied by scholars including Jan de Vries and Patrick K. O’Brien. Training workshops cover methods developed by Angrist and Pischke, James Heckman, Guido Imbens, and software practices using R Project, StataCorp, Python (programming language), and databases like IPUMS.

The Society recognizes scholarship through prizes that highlight best articles, dissertations, and lifetime achievement comparable in prestige to awards given by Economic History Association, NBER, and Econometric Society. Publications associated with members appear in journals such as Journal of Economic History, Economic History Review, Explorations in Economic History, American Economic Review, and edited volumes published by presses like Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Princeton University Press and Routledge. Awarded works frequently involve scholars connected to Robert Fogel, Douglass North, Daron Acemoglu, Avner Greif, Nathan Nunn, Esteban Rossi-Hansberg and Beverly Gage-style interdisciplinary projects engaging archives such as British Library and Library of Congress.

Cliometric scholarship influenced reinterpretations of episodes such as the American Civil War, British Industrial Revolution, Atlantic slave trade, Great Depression, and European colonization of Africa, shaping debate in venues including American Economic Association meetings and policy discussions at World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Critics—drawing on historiographical traditions of scholars at Cambridge University, Oxford University Press and figures in cultural history—have argued that heavy reliance on quantitative methods underplays narrative sources and interpretive frameworks advanced by historians like E.P. Thompson and Fernand Braudel. Debates also intersect with methodological disputes involving proponents of causal inference such as Joshua Angrist and skeptics emphasizing qualitative methods associated with John Tosh and Roy Porter.

Category:Learned societies