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Sheilagh Ogilvie

@sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social
722 followers 602 following 49 posts

Chichele Professor of Economic History, All Souls College, Oxford sheilaghogilvie.com

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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Bad institutions have an annoying habit of surviving. Why? I had the pleasure of tackling that question at the Bruno Leoni Lecture 2026 in Milan, marking the launch of the Italian edition of my book. Many thanks to my hosts—and to the audience for a terrific Q&A: www.youtube.com/live/q0kIstk...
youtube.com
Come fanno le cattive istituzioni a sopravvivere? Con Sheilagh Ogilvie | Discorso Bruno Leoni 2026
YouTube video by Istituto Bruno Leoni
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
It was a pleasure and honour to give the Thinkers Series Lecture at the Economics Department of Renmin University of China this Monday. Many thanks to my hosts and to a wonderfully engaged audience. The banner deserves some of the credit.‬ @leverhulme.ac.uk‬ @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social‬ #echist
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
The University of Oxford is advertising a 2-year Teaching Fellowship in Economic and Social History starting 1 Sep 2026. Applications close 1 Jul 2026. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
my.corehr.com
Job Details
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Congratulations to Yunyufei Luo on his EHS award and blog on “Credit Generation without (External) Contract Enforcement: Property Redemption Rights in Traditional China, 1592 – 1950”. @yunyufeiluo.bsky.social @echistsoc.bsky.social@oxford-esh.bsky.social‬‬‬ ehs.org.uk/credit-gener...
ehs.org.uk
Credit Generation without (External) Contract Enforcement: Property Redemption Rights in Traditional China, 1592 - 1950 - Economic History Society
In this post Yunyufei Luo (University of Oxford) presents their research, which was supported by the Economic History Society’s Research Fund for Graduate Students. — How did people deal with credit w...
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
The University of Oxford is advertising a 1-year Departmental Lectureship in Economic and Social History to be held in the Faculty of History from 1 Oct 2026 to 30 Sep 2027. Applications close 27 May 2026. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRL580/d...
jobs.ac.uk
Departmental Lectureship in Economic and Social History at University of Oxford
Apply now for the Departmental Lectureship in Economic and Social History role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
The University of Oxford is advertising a Professorship of Economic History, which will be held in the Department of Economics in association with Nuffield College. Closing date 25 May 2026, interviews 26 June. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru....
my.corehr.com
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Looking forward to talking at OCIS next week about the bright and dark side of pandemics and state capacity ‪@oxford-esh.bsky.social‬‬‬ #echist www.oxcis.ac.uk/events/levia...
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Looking forward to talking about epidemics and institutions at the IHR next week ‪@oxford-esh.bsky.social @PrincetonUPress #echist
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
How epidemic disease offers new perspectives on economic history—and vice versa. Honoured to blog for @camunicampop.bsky.social about my new book “Controlling Contagion”: www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/11... ‪@oxford-esh.bsky.social‬‬‬ @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social @PrincetonUPress
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Do the preindustrial roots of gender inequality lie in exogenous forces or also in human institutions? “Dividing the Spoils: Inheritance Institutions and Gender Inequality before Industrialization” @felixschaff.bsky.social @cepr.org ‪@oxford-esh.bsky.social‬‬ cepr.org/publications...
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
Wonderful audience and great discussion today at the Italian Economic History Association keynote on “Leviathan’s Health: State Capacity and Pestilence from the Black Death to Covid”. An honour to be invited to this excellent conference! @PrincetonUPress ‪@oxford-esh.bsky.social‬‬
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
How did preindustrial work patterns differ between women and men? How do you even measure them? Amazing quantitative data coming out today at the Urbino conference on “Women and Men at Work in Preindustrial Europe” mobilityandhumanities.it/work/
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Looking forward talking about “Leviathan's Health: State Capacity and Pestilence from the Black Death to Covid” at the ASE Conference in Venice on 4 Oct, and learning more about the newest work in Italian economic history ‪@oxford-esh.bsky.social‬ @PrincetonUPress‬ t.co/k5DWafQAbw
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Looking forward talking about “Controlling Contagion” at the Radboud Conference next week, and learning more answers to its key question: “How Did We Lift the Burden?” www.ru.nl/en/about-us/... @oxford-esh.bsky.social @timriswick.bsky.social @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social
ru.nl
Keynote “Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from Plague to Covid” | Radboud University
In this keynote lecture, prof. Sheilagh Ogilvie will explain how societies have historically managed epidemics through various social institutions.
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
New CEPR Discussion Paper - DP20556 Transplanting Craft Guilds to Colonial Latin America: A Large Language Model Analysis cepr.org/publications... @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social @oxford-esh.bsky.social #echist‬
cepr.org
DP20556 Transplanting Craft Guilds to Colonial Latin America: A Large Language Model Analysis
What can we learn about institutional transplantation by analyzing craft guilds in colonial Latin America? We use large language models (LLMs) to investigate colonial guild ordinances, addressing two major bottlenecks in assessing institutions: digitizing qualitative sources efficiently and analyzing them quantitatively. Our newly designed methodology reveals both long-term continuities and striking differences between craft guilds in colonial Mexico and Peru, particularly with regard to human capital and product quality. The LLM-based approach identifies patterns that were previously not discernible using standard methods in economic history, its results are reproducible, and it can easily be extended to other historical settings.
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, V:I, Part III, on government, externalities and public goods:
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Adam Smith: "it would still deserve the most serious attention of government... to prevent a leprosy, or any other loathsome and offensive disease... from spreading itself... though, perhaps, no other publick good might result from such attention, besides the prevention of so great a publick evil"
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Wonderful hosts and amazing audience in Edinburgh yesterday for for Adam Smith Lecture on “Market, State, and Contagion from the Black Death to Covid”. @AdamSmithHouse @PrincetonUPress @OxfordESH @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social #echist press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
A pleasure to talk about serfdom and my Leverhulme project yesterday at the Arthur Lewis Lab for Comparative Development. @oxford-esh.bsky.social @arthurlewislab.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk #echist
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Trade privileges didn't exactly benefit the special-interest groups, either. @OxfordESH @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social @PrincetonUPress #echist press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
What does history tell us about trade barriers to favour domestic interest-groups? On guilds and trade in medieval Europe, check out this BBC series, broadcast again this week. @BBCRadio4 @OxfordESH @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social #echist www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Has the black box of "state capacity" ever frustrated you? These guys are prying it open ...
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Had fun podcasting with Tyler Cowen on “Controlling Contagion”, guilds, and the persistence of bad institutions @PrincetonUPress @OxfordESH @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/she...
conversationswithtyler.com
Sheilagh Ogilvie on Epidemics, Guilds, and the Persistence of Bad Institutions (Ep. 237)
What 700 years of pandemic responses reveal about institutional effectiveness
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Wonderful audience today for “Controlling Contagion” at the Oxford Literary Festival @PrincetonUPress @oxford-esh.bsky.social @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
Follow the 1525 German Peasants' War day by day: @germanpeasantswar.bsky.social #earlymodern #skystorians
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
Do revolutions break out when peasants are poor? Or when they realize they shouldn’t be? And what role does God play? Still trying to puzzle this out, 5 centuries after the Peasants’ War (podcast in German): open.spotify.com/episode/0ZVe...
open.spotify.com
Der Freiheitskampf der Bauern - Bauernkrieg 1525
Terra X History - Der Podcast · Episode
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
How can we raise the Human Development Index? Life expectancy at birth = 1/3 of the HDI. Infant and maternal deaths started to fall around 1650 – but why? Alice Reid's analysis of a complex, 300-year story. @amrcampop.bsky.social @camunicampop.bsky.social www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/03...
campop.geog.cam.ac.uk
The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, CambridgeCall the midwife! Birth attendance and birth outcomes across history. « Top of the Campops: 60 things you didn't know ...
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Reposted by Sheilagh Ogilvie
NBER @nber.org · 27/03/2025
Sewer access shapes developing world cities. New research shows effects on population density as large as for highways, but little on demographics, from Sean E. McCulloch, Matthew P. Schaelling, Matthew Turner, and Toru Kitagawa www.nber.org/papers/w33597
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Reposted by Sheilagh Ogilvie
Alice Reid @amrcampop.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Campop blog #42: The quality of care during birth has always affected outcomes for both mothers and infants. But the introduction of midwivery training in 1902 did seem to have an impact - today's blog explains why @camunicampop.bsky.social www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/03...
campop.geog.cam.ac.uk
The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, CambridgeCall the midwife! Birth attendance and birth outcomes across history. « Top of the Campops: 60 things you didn't know ...
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Reposted by Sheilagh Ogilvie
Oxford Economic & Social History @oxford-esh.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
We are also inviting applications for a 2-year full-time Departmental Lecturer in Economic and Social History at @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social Applications should be submitted online and before noon Wednesday 23 April - details below! #econhist #history www.history.ox.ac.uk/event/depart...
history.ox.ac.uk
Departmental Lecturer in Economic and Social History
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
JOB OPPORTUNITY: Associate Professorship in Economic and Social History, Faculty of History and All Souls College, Oxford. Deadline for applications 23 April 2025. @oxford-esh.bsky.social @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
my.corehr.com
Job Details
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Why do sewers matter for the economy? People like them! But not only that: sewers encourage agglomeration economies, making us more productive. Super interesting new working paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Sewers and Urbanization in the Developing World
We investigate the effects of sewer access on neighborhood characteristics in developing world cities. Because it is more difficult to move sewage uphill than d
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
“Leave fast. Go far away. Come back slowly.” Was “Cito, Longe, Tarde” the only way of controlling contagion? A few answers at the Oxford Literary Festival on 3 April @princetonupress.bsky.social oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-e...
oxfordliteraryfestival.org
Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid | Oxford Literary Festival
Sheilagh Ogilvie - Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Any advice for someone waking up in 1348 to find the Black Death had arrived? How much did it change by 2020? Some ideas in “Controlling Contagion” - out today in Europe. @princetonupress.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu
Controlling Contagion
How human institutions—markets, states, communities, religions, guilds and families—have helped both to control and to exacerbate epidemics throughout history.
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Ever wondered what happened behind the harmonious facade of the traditional village community? Were the "commons" really open to the common people? More pathbreaking work in the Campop 60th birthday series.
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Nearly every religion claims to be cleaner than all the others. This claim can’t be true for all religions. But is it true for any? And could it affect disease outcomes? This nice study suggests so: doi.org/10.1093/ej/u....
doi.org
Child Care and Human Development: Insights from Jewish History in Central and Eastern Europe, 1500–1930*
Abstract. Economists increasingly highlight the role that human capital formation, institutions and cultural transmission may play in shaping health, knowl
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Did religion affect epidemics through hygiene? For astute reflections on some colourful ideas, I enjoyed Jeremy Brown’s “The Eleventh Plague” global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
How did religion affect the ways we tackled epidemics over the past 700 years? How do you get at an institution that works partly inside people's minds? I try to nail it down in Chapter 5 of press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... @princetonupress.bsky.social
press.princeton.edu
Controlling Contagion
How human institutions—markets, states, communities, religions, guilds and families—have helped both to control and to exacerbate epidemics throughout history.
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Interested in how the opportunity cost of women's time, social support systems, and human development indicators interact? Another great post in the Campop 60th birthday series
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Why were medieval governments scared of the Hanseatic League? www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNtc... @historyextra.bsky.social
youtube.com
Why were medieval governments scared of the Hanseatic League?
YouTube video by historyextra
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
The German Hansa – prototype EU or cartellistic crocodile? Find out more on BBC HistoryExtra: podcasts.apple.com/ee/podcast/t... For anyone who can’t resist a shadowy medieval economic institution. @historyextra.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com
The Hanseatic League: everything you wanted to know
Podcast Episode · History Extra podcast · 12/01/2025 · 40m
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Where did people work in the past? Lovely essay showcasing the Campop (and Erickson!) approach
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Another great map from Davenport, Satchell & Shaw-Taylor 2018: doi.org/10.1016/j.so... @camunicampop.bsky.social Institutions mattered.
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Smallpox mortality was lower in rich, market-oriented southern communities that paid for pesthouses and general inoculations, rewarded people for accepting them, and benefited commercially from keeping themselves smallpox-free. doi.org/10.1016/j.so... @camunicampop.bsky.social
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Another cool paper I came across writing press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... In pre-vaccination England, smallpox mortality was much lower in southern than northern communities. But why? doi.org/10.1016/j.so... @camunicampop.bsky.social Institutions mattered!
press.princeton.edu
Controlling Contagion
How human institutions—markets, states, communities, religions, guilds and families—have helped both to control and to exacerbate epidemics throughout history.
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Hat tip from “Controlling Contagion” – very cool paper by Guido Alfani on “Pandemics and Asymmetric Shocks” - www.brepolsonline.net/doi/epdf/10.... Great discussion of how pandemics have divergent effects in different economies – with several lovely graphs and charts!
brepolsonline.net
Pandemics and Asymmetric Shocks: Evidence from the History of Plague in Europe and the Mediterranean
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Looking forward to posting links to some of the great papers and books I came across while writing it.
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Sheilagh Ogilvie @sheilaghogilvie.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Happy to say my new book, “Controlling Contagion”, comes out next month. 700 years of tackling pandemics. Not all bad news… press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu
Controlling Contagion
How human institutions—markets, states, communities, religions, guilds and families—have helped both to control and to exacerbate epidemics throughout history.
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