Research Interests
I am open to supervise projects across the field of economic history, broadly defined. I am of the view that economic history needs to be re-inserted into the teaching and research agendas of economics departments and business schools. Consequently, my PhD students must always relate their economic history research to bigger economic and social questions.
Public outreach & key achievements
In addition to my research, I lead a teaching and learning project which aims to re-insert the study of economic history into the economics curriculum, and help prepare postgraduate students embarking on their PhD research. Thus far the project has resulted in a multi-authored edited volume, which has already been adopted in universities in the UK, US and South Africa.
Blum, Matthias, and Colvin, Christopher L., An Economist’s Guide to Economic History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). URL: http://www.blumandcolvin.org
Blurb from the back cover:
Without economic history, economics runs the risk of being too abstract or parochial, of failing to notice precedents, trends and cycles, of overlooking the long-run and thus misunderstanding ‘how we got here’. Recent financial and economic crises illustrate spectacularly how the economics profession has not learnt from its past.
This important and unique book addresses this problem by demonstrating the power of historical thinking in economic research. A carefully curated collection of short chapters guides economics lecturers and their students through the field of economic history, and advises them on how they can actively engage with economic history in their own teaching and learning.
Matthias Blum and Christopher L. Colvin bring together important voices in the field to show readers how they can use their existing economics training to explore different facets of economic history. Each chapter introduces a question or topic, historical context or research method and explores how they can be used in economics scholarship and pedagogy. In a century characterised to date by economic uncertainty, bubbles and crashes, An Economist’s Guide to Economic History is essential reading.
Research students
| PhD area | The Law and Economics of the Patent System of the Netherlands, 1817-1869 |
| Name | Homer Wagenaar |
| Years of study | 2018-2022 |
| Country | The Netherlands |
| PhD area | Innovation and Incentives in British Economic History |
| Name | Stephen Billington |
| Years of study | 2016-2020 |
| Country | Northern Ireland |
Alumni: Where are they now
| PhD area | Industrialisation, Politics and Banking Instability in Late Imperial Russia |
| Name | Nikita Lychakov |
| Years of study | 2014-2018 |
| Country | Russia and USA |
| Current Position | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Higher School of Economics, Moscow |
| PhD area | Historical Reflections on Religion, Finance and Economic Development |
| Name | Stuart Henderson |
| Years of study | 2013-2017 |
| Country | Republic of Ireland |
| Current Position | Lecturer in Financial Services, Ulster University, Jordanstown |