The state of the art of economic history: The uneasy relation with economics

Abstract

This paper assesses the state of the art of economic history, focusing on recent changes that have recently characterized the field. We rely on a new database of almost 2,700 articles published from 2001 to 2018 in the top-five economic history journals and in 13 leading economics journals. We argue that economic history still remains a distinct field. The share of economic history articles in economics journals increased very little and only few authors published in both economics and economic history journals. Publishing in top-five economic journals yields more citations than in top-field journals, but this is not necessarily true for other prestigious economic journals. Finally, we speculate on the future. Will economic history lose its soul and become a sub-field of development studies? Will persistence studies become a separate field? Or, perhaps, a new synthesis will emerge, with scholars dealing with traditional and new research questions with a wide range of tools?