History as approached by the Centre for Economic and Social History François-Simiand consists of the analysis of economic and social phenomena considered in their historical duration. This formulation is not straightforward and involves a series of structuring analytical hypotheses. The Centre has a dual ambition: first, to promote a historical approach to economics; then, contribute to opening up economic history to make it fully social.

Prochains évènements
Upcoming seminarsView all
May 20, 2026
12:30 - 13:45
Room R1.09, Campus Jourdan
Christian Robles Baez
May 13, 2026
12:30 - 13:45
Room R1.09, Campus Jourdan
Daniel Sanchez Ordonez
May 6, 2026
12:30 - 13:45
Room R1.09, Campus Jourdan
Ariel Wilkis
Prochains ateliers et conférencesView all
June 29, 2026
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Social Sciences Department of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M)
CAPHIST Research Training Workshop
Summary
On June 29th and 30th of 2026, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid will host the annual CAP-HIST Research
Training Workshop. With this official announcement, the Organization Committee is honoured to invite all
those who are interested in participating in the workshop to send their proposals.
The history of capitalism is a narrative of the intricate intersection between state power, finance, and social
stratification rather than a simple tale of market efficiency. While specific production factors are well-studied,
a critical gap remains in linking macroeconomic shifts to their distributional consequences. Specifically, we
must determine how fiscal states shaped markets and whether past institutional choices exacerbated or
mitigated inequality. Failing to connect macro-level policies to micro-level outcomes – such as elite persistence
and social mobility – obscures the political economy driving growth. Furthermore, the lack of integrated, long-
run datasets, particularly beyond Northwestern Europe, hinders our ability to compare how various
institutional arrangements historically produced both economic progress and systemic disparity.
With the generous support of the CAP-HIST project (a joint initiative of the Paris School of Economics, the
University of Geneva, and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), this workshop seeks to address these gaps by
fostering rigorous new research on the intersection of state development, finance, and inequality. We aim to
create a forum where early-career scholars (predocs and postdocs), working with both quantitative and high-
quality qualitative approaches, can present their work, exchange ideas, and situate their findings within broader
trajectories of the economy.
Working papersView all
Colonialism on the Cheap: The French Empire 1830-1962
Denis COGNEAU, Yannick DUPRAZ, Elise HUILLERY, Sandrine MESPLE-SOMPS
2024
Enforcing Colonial Rule: Blood Tax and Head Tax in French West Africa
Denis COGNEAU, Zhexun MO
2024
The reform of the Paris stock exchange and anti-Semitism (1893-1998)
Pierre-Cyrille Hautcœur
2024
The Social Differentiation of Access to Water in 19th & 20th Century Paris
Lionel Kesztenbaum
2024