From Thursday, February 11 to Saturday, February 13, the School of Economics hosted the 2016 Asian Pacific Economic and Business History conference together with EHSANZ, the Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand.

About forty scholars, including a substantial number of international scholars from Asia, America and Europe, presented and discussed a wide range of academic work, covering an extensive spectrum of topics, regions and time periods. Notable was also the strong presence of young scholars, in particular PhD students. The sessions on Saturday were dedicated to the theme “Agriculture, Mining & the Economy: Lessons from History”, including the Butlin Lecture given by the school’s own Kym Anderson, who spoke on “Sectoral trends and cycles in Australia’s economic growth”.

The full program, including links to the presented papers, can be found on apebh2016 website.

The conference participants also enjoyed the social aspects of their visit, including a reception in the Barr Smith Reading room of the university library, a tour of the Adelaide Oval, and the conference dinner at the National Wine Centre. The highlight of the dinner was the engaging and informative talk of Jari Eloranta, the Secretary-General of the IEHA, who took us on “The Awkward Dance between Economic and Business History: Methods and Topics for Future Collaboration”

Pictured above (left to right): Jacky Charles (Uni of Adelaide), Sumner La Croix (University of Hawaii), Florian Ploeckl (Uni of Adelaide), Laura Panza (University of Melbourne), Jordi Vidal-Robert (University of Sydney) and Martine Mariotti (ANU).