My research program

My research is motivated by two questions:

1. How did highly liquid equity markets emerge in Western Europe?

2. And why does it matter that they did?

My work in economic history approaches (1) from a legal angle, attempting to identify origins of Western Europe's politico-legal distinctives. My answer puts Harold Berman's work on the origins of the Western legal tradition in dialogue with the recent research of Schulz and Henrich on ecclesiastical kin-marriage prohibitions. Most of the rest of my work, on economic calculation and contemporary political economy, addresses (2). Together, the two strands of inquiry sketch the outline of a new history of commerce, in which religiously mediated law and thick capital markets create a feedback loop for long-run growth.

I also have interests in the relationship between markets and ethics. My work on Michael Polanyi and family economics represent attempts to clarify the tradeoffs and complementarities between aggregate economic growth and personal happiness.