Welcome to my research.

• Below is a short overview about the main areas of my research
• Publications can be found on the Publications tab
• Drafts & Working papers of current research can be found on figshare

How did nature and nurture impact the children of convicts and passage-assisted migrants in Australia? This project measures intergenerational mobility, combining colonial data, over 3 million digitised records and the work of dozens of volunteers to link thousands of South Australian and Tasmanian individuals' life courses. Our interdisciplinary approach, combines economic, social, historical and computational skills to produce new insights into the factors impacting individual's mobility. Besides path-breaking research into mobility, expected outcomes include world-class, digitised and linked records that will benefit current research into the factors impacting life outcomes and secure, historical digital assets for future generations
This project is supported by an ARC Linkage Project grant in collaboration with Digital History Tasmania, Genealogy SA, BDM SA, State Records SA, and the SA State Library.

My current work also explores the importance of communication services, including the telephone, telegraph, and mail service, for economic activity in th 19th century. Particular aspects center on the relevance of information flows for trade, capital and labour flows during the First Globalization and the Interwar period. On a local level I utilize postal data on information and communication to better understand the spatial structure of the economy, in particular urban systems.  

Published articles: Market Access and Information Technology Adoption: Historical Evidence from the Telephone in  Bavaria Uniform Service, Uniform Productivity? Regional Efficiency of the Imperial German Postal, Telegraph and Telephone Service Spanning the Globe: The Rise of Global Communications Systems and the First Globalisation

Networks and spatial information flows are also important for the interactions of firms, in particular banks and other financial enterprises. The impact and relevance of these linkages are explored in different settings, including the interwar British steel industry and Republican-era modern Chinese banking. Current explorations of the development of postal money orders links this explicitly to the role of communication services.

Published articles: Bank on steel? Joint-stock banks and the rationalization of the British interwar steel industry Modern Chinese banking networks during the Republican Era

Towns and cities are anohter concentration of my research. My work investigates the definition, location, size and long-term growth of towns. In particular the role of geographic endowments and agglomeration effects, so the spatial networks and interactions, on town size is one focus of my research. Geographically this work is mostly focused on Germany, in particular Saxony.

Published articles: Endowments and market access; the size of towns in historical perspective: Saxony, 1550-1834 ,  Towns (and villages): definitions and implications in a historical setting

Another strand of research is the Zollverein, the first international customs union formed by German states in 1834. Building on my dissertation research I look at the role of geography on the political economy of its formation, the impact it had on regional growth patterns and spatial structures of the early industrialization.

Published articles: A novel institution: the Zollverein and the origins of the customs union The internal impact of a customs union; Baden and the Zollverein, The Zollverein and the Sequence of a Customs Union , Local convergence: Baden 1829-1847