Alexandra L. Cermeño

Stunting and Wasting in a Growing Economy: Biological Living Standards in Portugal during the Twentieth Century

With Nuno Palma , Renato Pistola

Portugal's real income per head grew by a factor of eight during the second half of the twentieth century, a period of fast convergence towards Western European living standards. We use a new sample of about 3,400 infants and children living in Lisbon to document trends in the prevalence of stunting and wasting between 1906 and 1994. We find that stunting and wasting fell quickly from around 1950, for both males and females. We additionally use a sample of more than 26,000 young adult males covering the entire country, which shows a consistent decrease in wasting and stunting with the expected time lag. We discuss these trends in relation to changes in income and public policy, which affected the ontogenetic environment of children. Sustained progress began well before the introduction of democracy.

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"Railways and Reform: How Trains Strengthened the Nation State"

With Johannes Lindvall , Kerstin Enflo

This paper examines the relationship between the coming of the railroads, the expansion of primary education, and the introduction of national school curricula. Using fine-grained data on local education outcomes in Sweden in the nineteenth century, the paper tests the idea that the development of the railroad network enabled national school inspectors to monitor remote schools more effectively. In localities to which school inspectors could travel by rail, a larger share of children attended permanent public schools and took classes in nation-building subjects such as geography and history. By contrast, the parochial interests of local and religious authorities continued to dominate in remote areas school inspectors could not reach by train. The paper argues for a causal interpretation of these findings, which are robust for the share of children in permanent schools and suggestive for the content of the curriculum. The paper therefore concludes that the railroad, the defining innovation of the First Industrial Revolution, mattered directly for the state’s ability to implement public policies

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Can kings create towns that thrive? The long-term implications of new town foundations

With Kerstin Enflo

We examine the long-term effects of a series of Swedish towns founded by the Crown during the early modern period. Their advantage over rural parishes consisted in having monopoly rights to trade with the local hinterland. Since the optimum sites were occupied by medieval towns, the Crown could only aim for second-rate locations. Using difference-in-difference combined with Propensity Score Matching, we find that a reduction in the distance to town increased gross production and population up to 30–40 km away. However, there is no evidence of increasing per capita production or yields. These natural constraints could only support a sluggish growth in the towns themselves. However, after the Industrial Revolution, the towns began to thrive. We argue that town status signalled the commitment of the Crown to nurture these locations creating positive expectations despite their natural constraints. During industrialization, agglomeration economies led them to become significantly large urban areas persistent until today.

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Do universities generate spatial spillovers? Evidence from US counties between 1930 and 2010

This paper explores the impact of new universities established in the USA between 1931 and 1980 on population density, GDP and market size measured from 1930 to 2010. The analysis is based on differences in differences on counties selected through propensity score matching, as well as an instrumental variable approach. The evidence suggests that counties hosting a university for the first time grew by between 1% and 3% annually on top of the general trends of population density and GDP growth, and that this effect expanded to neighboring counties. Controlling for research intensity and interstate roads shows that the gains from these universities were constrained by their accessibility. These results point to a situation where new universities create spillover effects that eventually fade away if not accompanied by additional investments.

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The driving forces of service localization during the twentieth century: evidence from the United States

Despite the expanding role of services in the global economy, economic history has paid little attention to their geographic localization. This paper provides a description of the increasing specialization and localization patterns of services across US counties compared to other sectors from 1930 to 2010. It stresses that market potential influences most of these changes. The interaction between county and industry characteristics shows that the geography of services has been influenced by market potential since 1980. OLS and 2SLS results suggest a cumulative effect of increasing returns to scale that enhanced the agglomeration of services through linkages with other services and manufacturing firms.

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Urban planning and town foundations

With Kerstin Enflo

Urban growth is crucial for modernisation, and the wave of new towns in China since the 1980s is one example of a strategy employed by policymakers to encourage the process. This column analyses the long-run success of a town foundation policy in Sweden between 1570 and 1810. While the ‘artificially’ created towns failed to grow in the short term, they eventually began to grow and thrive, and today are as resilient as their medieval counterparts.

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The transformation of the Manufacturing Belt: How market size drove the localisation of knowledge hubs

Knowledge hubs are generally located in large and dynamic population clusters, but there is little empirical evidence on what has driven the location of services in the economy, particularly the knowledge-intensive ones that form these hubs. This column describes how the geography of services across the US has been influenced by the interaction between county and industry characteristics. The presence of large markets enhanced the agglomeration of services mainly through linkages with other services and manufacturing ﬁrms.

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Service labour market: The engine of growth and inequality

Economic historians tend to explain US geographical development gaps in terms of industrialisation. But by the end of the 20th century, the richest counties had become specialised in services, rather than in manufacturing. This column evaluates how the service economy triggered this evident contrast between the urban and rural US. Market size causes localisation of non-agricultural activity, with the effect being stronger for services, especially knowledge services. Local policymakers can thus foster growth by attracting high-skilled workers to a region, with the multiplier effect eventually increasing the local market.

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4 / 2023
Paris School of Economics - Invited Seminar

The unintended consequences of the "Arsenal of Democracy".
7 / 2022
World Economic History Congress

Organising "Can policy offset poor resource endowments? measuring costs and benefits in the long term" session, where the paper "The unintended consequences of the "Arsenal of Democracy"" was presented. Also presenting "Stunting and Wasting in a Growing Economy: Biological Living Standards in Portugal during the Twentieth Century" in "Worldwide child stunting and human wellbeing since the nineteenth century".
6 / 2022
EHES - Groningen

The multiplier of destructive creation: a multisector spatial analysis of the investments for WW2 in the US.
4 / 2022
EHS - Cambridge

The multiplier of destructive creation: a multisector spatial analysis of the investments for WW2 in the US.
12 / 2021
Agricliometrics IV - Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Closing the price gap on wheat markets in early modern Spain
11 / 2021
Research Seminar at Universidad of Gothenburg

The multiplier of destructive creation: a multisector spatial analysis of the investments for WW2 in the US.
10 / 2021
African economic history meeting - Lund University

A Historical Gender Gap Index for Sub-Saharan Africa. Trends and insights from the past 50 years.
4 / 2021
Economic History Association - Annual Meeting (Online).

”All roads lead to market integration? Spatial integration of grain markets in 18th century Spain"
10 / 2019
14th North American Meeting of the Urban Economics Association Federal Reserve of Philadelphia, USA.

”Can kings create towns that thrive? The long-run implications of a town foundation policy”
10 / 2019
Research Seminar at Universidad de Barcelona

"Building up faith: the relationship between church building and pre-industrial population"
8 / 2019
European Historical Economics Society Paris, France.

”Building up faith: the relation- ship between church building and pre-industrial population”
7 / 2019
4th Sound for Seniors NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.

”Building up faith: the relationship between church building and pre-industrial population”
4 / 2019
Economic History Society Annual Conference - Queens University, Belfast.

’Building up faith: the relationship between church building and pre-industrial population’
9 / 2018
13th Sound Economic History Workshop in Gothenburg, Sweden

Railways and Reform: How did the train enhance the Nation State
7 / 2018
World Economic History Congress - Boston (USA)

Presenting "Building up faith: The relationship between local wealth and church investments in Medieval Sweden." in “Conversion out of Poverty?” (Scheduled)
10 / 2017
12th Swedish Economic History Meeting - Stockholm University (Sweden)

Can Kings Create Towns that Thrive? The long-run implications of new town foundations
9 / 2017
12th European Historical Economics Society Conference - Tübingen University (Germany)

Can Kings Create Towns that Thrive? The long-run implications of new town foundations
9 / 2017
12th Sound Economic History Workshop, Jyväskylä University (Finland)

Can Kings Create Towns that Thrive? Urbanisation and agricultural surplus in Sweden 1570-1810
3 / 2017
Economic History Association Annual Meeting - Royal Holloway (UK)

Knowledge shocks diffusion and the resilience of regional inequality

Business History

CUNEF Universidad
Development Theory - Lund University

Current trends in development theory - Undergraduate (English) Spring 2018
Economic history - UC3M

Undergraduate Economics and Business Degrees - (Spanish and English) 2012-2016

Proyectos de I+D+i, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia

"Inequality, wellbeing, polarization, and social mobility in Spain, 1750-1900" PI: Fernando Ramos Palencia (Universidad de Sevilla) and Carlos Santiago-Caballero (UC3M).
Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation program grant.

Principal Investigator in the project "Building up faith: the relationship between church building and pre-industrial population. Sweden 1200-1810". Active between 2020-2023, awarded 1.75 million SEK = 170,000 €, grant number P20-0037.
Knut and Alice Wallenbergs travel grant for contact trips outside Europe - 2018

MIT Media Lab - July 2018
Research mobility grant UC3M - 2015

Used to visit the Department of Economic History at London School of Economics from September to December

Blog manager of the RHI-IHR

https://ihrthegreatspurt.wordpress.com
Editorial Board

Revista de Historia Industrial - Industrial History Review (RHI-IHR)
World Economic History Congress - Paris 2022

Session: Can policy offset poor resource endowments: measuring costs and benefits in long term?
Sound Economic History Workshop

13th Sound Economic History Workshop - University of Gothenburg 14th Sound Economic History Workshop & 4th Sound for Seniors - NTNU Trondheim, Norway

alexandra.lopez_cermeno@ekh.lu.se

Lund University
Department of Economic History Alfa 1 2097
Scheelevägen 15b Lund, Sweden

scheelevagen

Publications.

Ongoing Research.

Events.

Paris School of Economics - Invited Seminar

World Economic History Congress

EHES - Groningen

EHS - Cambridge

Agricliometrics IV - Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Research Seminar at Universidad of Gothenburg

African economic history meeting - Lund University

Economic History Association - Annual Meeting (Online).

14th North American Meeting of the Urban Economics Association Federal Reserve of Philadelphia, USA.

Research Seminar at Universidad de Barcelona

European Historical Economics Society Paris, France.

4th Sound for Seniors NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.

Economic History Society Annual Conference - Queens University, Belfast.

13th Sound Economic History Workshop in Gothenburg, Sweden

World Economic History Congress - Boston (USA)

12th Swedish Economic History Meeting - Stockholm University (Sweden)

12th European Historical Economics Society Conference - Tübingen University (Germany)

12th Sound Economic History Workshop, Jyväskylä University (Finland)

Economic History Association Annual Meeting - Royal Holloway (UK)

Others.

Contact.

Publications.

Ongoing Research.

The unintended consequences of the "Arsenal of Democracy"

All roads lead to market integration.

Building up faith

What hath God wrought?

Events.

Others.

Contact.