Politics and state finance in the peripheries of the global economy in historical perspective

Politics and state finance in the peripheries of the global economy in historical perspective

Organizer
Coşkun Tunçer (University College London); Leonardo Weller (São Paulo School of Economics)
Venue
University College London
Location
London
Country
United Kingdom
From - Until
06.06.2018 - 07.06.2018
Deadline
15.12.2017
Website
By
Ali Coskun Tuncer

Politics shapes the way governments tax, spend, borrow and repay. In this workshop, we aim to explore how political systems influenced the way peripheral governments managed their fiscal systems in Europe, Asia and Africa in historical perspective. The mainstream economic history literature on state finance assumes that autocratic regimes are less likely to run sustainable accounts and more likely to default on their debt. The “democratic advantage” implies that governments limited by checks and balances such as an independent parliament are more creditworthy. Others highlight the importance of political centralisation in the rise of “fiscal states”, which count with permanent bureaucratic bodies to tax and borrow long term. Overall, there is a consensus that political institutions influence the ability and willingness of governments to tax and repay, but there are more than one combinations between polity, credit records and fiscal strength. The session is open to papers on any time range which focus on peripheries of Europe, Asia and Africa around these themes. Proposed papers inter alia will explore topics of fiscal policy, long-term patterns of taxation and government spending, political economy of domestic/foreign debt and defaults, persistence and convergence of fiscal regimes, and the links between global finance and domestic politics.

The interested participants are required submit a 500-words abstract and title together with their academic CV to history.debt@ucl.ac.uk by 15 December 2017.

Authors of accepted papers will be notified by 15 January 2018. Participants will be invited to publish their extended abstract of paper in workshop proceedings and the project website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/debt-politics.

Should your paper be accepted, you will be asked to provide either extended abstract (2000-2500 words) or full manuscript for inclusion in the proceedings by 18 May 2018.

While limited financial support is available for selected PhD students, interested participants are expected to secure their own funding.

Additional information on registration, travel and accommodation will be made available to participants by 31 January 2018.

The workshop organisers, Coşkun Tunçer (University College London) and Leonardo Weller (São Paulo School of Economics), gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the British Academy.

For any queries regarding the workshop, please get in touch with organisers via history.debt@ucl.ac.uk.

Programm

Contact (announcement)

history.debt@ucl.ac.uk


Editors Information
Published on
08.12.2017
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Language(s) of event
English
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