Editors' Notes

THE 2006 ECONOMIC HISTORY ASSOCIATION MEETINGS

“Frontiers and Institutional Innovation: Property Rights, Production Organization and Governance, and Political Structure”

Gary Libecap, 2005/06 EHA President, announced that the sixty-sixth annual meeting of the Economic History Association will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15–17 September 2006, at the Omni William Penn Hotel.

The Program Committee—William Collins (Chair), Ryan Johnson, Mike Haupert, and Zeynep Hansen—invite paper proposals on all topics of economic history. The committee welcomes proposals for individual papers, as well as for entire sessions. Papers should in all cases be work in progress rather than accepted or published work. Submitters have a responsibility to let the program committee know if the proposed paper has been submitted for publication. Submissions for entire sessions should include no more than three papers and each proposal should be submitted separately. The committee reserves the right to determine which papers will be included in those sessions that are accepted.

Many of the sessions will be focused on the theme “Frontiers and Institutional Innovation: Property Rights, Production Organization and Governance, and Political Structure.” The program committee encourages submissions that provide a historical or interdisciplinary perspective on the ways in which frontiers provide new opportunities and challenges requiring institutional innovation. Frontiers include new geographic or resource settings as well as new technologies and scientific opportunities. The issues include, but are not limited to, the role of frontiers in institutional change: new property rights to physical and intellectual property; new political or legal structures; new production organization and government arrangements; the process of institutional change in these settings; and the welfare outcomes of institutional change. Although the committee is interested in any paper that deals with frontiers and institutional change as broadly defined, it will also consider strong papers that are not directly related to the theme of the conference.

Interested scholars are requested to submit a 3–5 page abstract; a 150-word abstract (suitable for publication in this JOURNAL); and, if available, a draft of the paper. All submissions must be made online at http://www.eh.net/EHA/Meetings/prop_06.html. The deadline for paper proposals is 31 January 2006.

The dissertation session, convened by Carol Shiue (University of Colorado) and Melissa Thomasson (Miami University), will honor the top six dissertations in economic history completed during the 2005/06 academic year. The deadline for dissertation submissions is 31 May 2006. Send dissertations on American or Canadian topics by e-mail to Melissa Thomasson, thomasma@muohio.edu; or mail two printed copies to her at Department of Economics, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA. Send dissertations on topics in other regions by e-mail to Carol Shiue, shiue@colorado.edu or mail two printed copies to her at Department of Economics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 256, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

The local arrangements committee will be Werner Troesken, Karen Clay, and Siddharth Chandra. They especially encourage graduate students to attend and look forward to welcoming them to their exciting city. Travel and hotel subsidies, registration and meal discounts, and the possibility of scintillating conversation are all offered as enticements.

For further information, check www.ehameeting.com or contact Meetings Coordinator Carolyn Tuttle at tuttleeha@lfc.edu.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2006 JONATHAN HUGHES PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING ECONOMIC HISTORY

The Committee on Education of the Economic History Association invites nominations for the Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History. Jonathan Hughes was an outstanding scholar and a committed and influential teacher of economic history. The prize has been established by the Economic History Association in his memory.

Anyone may nominate a candidate for the Prize. Both undergraduate and graduate instructors are eligible. The only criterion is excellence in teaching economic history. Successful nomination files in the past have included the following materials: 1) A letter from the person making the nomination, indicating why the candidate deserves the prize; 2) support from the chair of the department or program housing the nominee; 3) supporting material such as letters (which may be in e-mail form) from former undergraduate or graduate students, relevant syllabi and other course materials, course evaluations (optional), and letters from colleagues with specific knowledge of the candidate's teaching ability and effectiveness. Files remain active for three years and may be supplemented. Anyone wishing to nominate a candidate should send a preliminary letter or e-mail to William Hausman, Chair of the Education Committee, no later than 1 March 2006. The deadline for completion of files is 1 May 2006.

Please send material to: William J. Hausman; Department of Economics, Box 8795; College of William & Mary; Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795. Phone: (757) 221-2381. Fax: (757) 221-1175. E-mail: wjhaus@wm.edu.

AWARDS AT THE 2005 ECONOMIC HISTORY ASSOCIATION MEETINGS

The following prizes were awarded at the sixty-fifth annual meeting of the Economic History Association, held in Toronto, Ontario, 16–18 September 2005.

The Arthur H. Cole Prize for the outstanding article published in this JOURNAL in the September 2004 through June 2005 issues to Oscar Gelderblom and Joost Jonker for the article “Completing a Financial Revolution: The Finance of the Dutch East India Trade and the Rise of the Amsterdam Capital Market, 1595–1612,” which appeared in the September 2004 issue.

The Columbia University Prize in American Economic History in honor of Allen Nevins for the outstanding dissertation in U.S. or Canadian economic history during 2004/05 to William H. Bergmann of the University of Cincinnati for “Commerce and Arms: The Federal Government, Native Americans, and the Economy of the Old Northwest, 1783–1807.”

The Alexander Gerschenkron Prize for the outstanding dissertation in non–U.S. or Canadian economic history during 2004/05 to Drew Keeling of the University of California, Berkeley for “The Business of Transatlantic Migration between Europe and the USA, 1900–1914.”

The Gyorgy Ranki Prize for the outstanding book in the economic history of Europe (including the British Isles and Russia) published in 2003–2004 jointly to Robert C. Allen of Nuffield College, Oxford University for Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003) and Peter Lindert of University of California, Davis for Growing Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth Since the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

The Jonathan R. T. Hughes Prize for excellence in teaching economic history to Larry Neal of University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana. The winner is selected by the E.H.A. Committee on Education and Teaching.

Also announced at the meetings was the prize for the best article in Explorations in Economic History in the past year, which was awarded to Melissa Thomasson for “Early Evidence of an Adverse Selection Death Spiral?” which appeared in the October 2004 issue.

RECIPIENTS OF ARTHUR H. COLE GRANTS

The Committee on Research in Economic History of the Economic History Association awards the Arthur H. Cole Grants-In-Aid to support research in economic history regardless of time period or geographic area. The 2005 recipients are:

Joanna Short of Augustana College, $1,500, for “Retirement Savings among U.S. Industrial Workers in the Early Twentieth Century.”

J. Peter Ferderer of Macalester College, $1,500, for “Construction of a High Frequency Interest Rate Data Set.”

David Jacks of Simon Fraser University, $1,500, for “Trade Costs in the Long-Run.”

Dhanoos Sutthiphisal of McGill University, $1,500, for “Location, Location, Location: Why Inventors Cluster in Urban Areas, Experience from the Second Industrial Revolution.”

2005 EHA DISSERTATION AND PREDISSERTATION GRANT RECIPIENTS

The Committee on Graduate Education in Economic History of the Economic History Association has awarded the following grants to graduate students this year:

Dissertation Awards ($10,000)

Leah Platt Boustan of Harvard University for “The Making of the Segregated Metropolis: Black Migration and White Flight, 1940–1970.”

Carola Frydman of Harvard University for “The Evolution of the Market for Corporate Executives.”

Steven Nafziger of Yale University for “Communal Institutions and Factor Markets in Russia, 1861–1900.”

Todd C. Neumann of University of Arizona for “Retail Trade in the United States during the 20th Century.”

Evan Roberts of University of Minnesota for “Married Women's Labor Force Participation in the United States, 1880–1940.”

Predissertation Awards ($5,000)

Adriana Leticia Arroyo Abad of University of California, Davis for “Diverging Paths, Diverging Inequality? Measurement of Inequality in the Southern Cone after Independence.”

Claudia Rei of Boston University for “A Tale of Merchant Empires: Portugal and England in the Early Modern Period.”