General Description

In recent years, there has been a burgeoning interest on the part of the economics profession in economic growth, including the question of what determines economic growth rates over the very long run (i.e. centuries or more). While economists have developed a series of models trying to understand the mechanisms involved in shifting the European economy from a relatively low growth regime (usually characterised as 'Malthusian') to a regime of high and sustained levels of growth (usually characterised as the 'modern' growth regime), economic historians have made major advances in documenting the basic facts about long run economic growth which such theories should seek to explain. Since understanding long run growth has always been one of the core activities of our field, these trends in modern growth economics offer a welcome opportunity for economic historians to make an impact on the economics profession more generally.

The lead speaker for this conference, Gregory Clark, is one of the most influential economic historians working in this area today, and is the author of a series of path-breaking papers extending our empirical understanding of economic growth back into medieval times. Along with other speakers at this summer school, he has been actively engaged in challenging growth economists' stylised facts, as well as their preferred explanations. This summer school will seek to introduce students to the current research frontier in this area.

The school is organised as part of the Research Training Network 'Unifying the European Experience: Historical Lessons of Pan-European Development' and is funded under the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (Contract No. MRTN-CT-2004-512439. The network aims to contribute to the development of a truly European economic history profession by analysing the economic development of Europe as a whole. The network will collect pan-European data for two time-scales: the long run (i.e., the past 150 years), and the very long run (i.e., the past 1,000 years). It will stimulate the use of up-to-date economic and historical techniques, both theoretical and econometric, to construct and analyse these data and provide accounts of European growth, European economic integration, European economic and social policies, and the changing nature of Europe's economic relationships with the rest of the world.

Participants
The school is targeted to doctorate and post-doctorate students in economics and related disciplines.

Applications and deadlines
The participants will be selected by the Selection Committee on the basis of the information included in the application forms. Candidates should fill in the enclosed form and return it to meets team at CEPR by fax on 0044 20 7878 2999 or email meets@cepr.org by 1 April 2006. We will aim to notify candidates by 1 May 2006.

Fees and Scholarships
Participants will be charged EUR 1000 covering registration, meals, boarding and background material. However, a number of grants covering travelling expenses and fee waivers will be available, and we would strongly encourage all those interested in participating to apply.

More detailed information about the summer school will be provided to participants in due course.

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