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Kris Inwood

@kris-inwood.bsky.social

19K followers 8.6K following 430 posts

Economic historian @UoGuelph w broad social science & historical interests: population health, First Nations demography, mobility, inequality & lives of the incarcerated 🇨🇦🇦🇺🇳🇿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Editing Asia-Pacific Econ History Rev & directing https://thecanadianpeoples.com. .. more

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Economics 38%

Political science 17%

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

Allan Kennedy @allankennedy.bsky.social · 19h

Pleased to see my interview with the BBC History Extra podcast has now gone live! Had great fun chatting with Emily Briffett about my book on 'Serious Crime in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland'. www.historyextra.com/membership/c...

Bandits & blasphemers: crime in 17th century Scotland

Allan Kennedy unpacks what looking at crime and punishment can reveal about Scottish values in the 17th century

www.historyextra.com

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Kris Inwood @kris-inwood.bsky.social · 20h

Today!

National Library of Ireland @nlireland.bsky.social · 5d

💻 Fortunately, remote access is available.

Free to join but registration required:
www.nli.ie/news-stories...

No Time to Wait Conference Returns for its 9th Edition at the NLI from 15-17 October 2025

www.nli.ie

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Kris Inwood, Mark Rice , and 1 more Lesley A. Hall, Kris Inwood, Mark Rice, Mary Burke

David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 21h

What HE managers fail to understand is that in the context of the Humanities, ‘employability’ isn’t teaching coding or carpentry, but skills around writing, presenting, reasoning, evaluation, analysis, research etc. In an 80% service economy, these are the skills that fundamentally matter.

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Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Kris Inwood, S. J. Holmes

Seán Thomas Kane @sthosdkane.bsky.social · 1d

Does anyone have recommendations on sources concerning South Atlantic ocean currents and navigational routes in the 16th century? I see a lot of maps showing how Europeans got to Brazil, but not the return voyage. #earlymodern #histsci #skystorians

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Kris Inwood @kris-inwood.bsky.social · 1d

Nobel laureate Professor Joel Mokyr drew on Peter Laslett, Jack Goody & the European marriage pattern to ground his new vision for “The Great Reversal and the Industrial Revolution”, a plenary address to the 8th Asian Historical Economics Conference, December 10 2024 at Hong Kong Univ www.cqh.hku.hk

Nobel laureate Professor Joel Mokyr speaking at the 8th Asian Historical Economics Conference, December 10 2024, hosted by Hong Kong University's Centre for Quantitative History www.cqh.hku.hk

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Reposted by Kris Inwood, Tim Hitchcock, Katrina Navickas

Justin Colson @justincolson.bsky.social · 1d

At @ihr.bsky.social we can now offer PhD by Publication in History! For those with a substantial body of existing published research (within past 10 years), but without a PhD, should be of particular interest to #heritage professionals and independent scholars!

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Kris Inwood @kris-inwood.bsky.social · 1d

Ask Patrick Wallis or Chris Minns?

Reposted by Ben Barr, Kris Inwood

Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 1d

In the great series of economists reinventing psychology, I bring you today's episode: Vygotsky's zone of proximal development

"Moving the Goalposts" by Jeffrey C. Ely and Martin Szydlowski. We study information as an incentive device in a dynamic moral hazard framework. An agent works on a task of uncertain difficulty, modeled as the duration of required effort. The principal knows the task difficulty and provides information over time. The optimal mechanism features moving goalposts: an initial disclosure makes the agent sufficiently optimistic that the task is easy. If the task is indeed difficult, the agent is told this only after working long enough to put the difficult task within reach. The agent then completes the difficult task even though he never would have chosen to at the outset.

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Reposted by Sascha O. Becker, Matthias Doepke, Kris Inwood , and 3 more Sascha O. Becker, Matthias Doepke, Kris Inwood, C. Kirabo Jackson, Louis D Johnston, Elizabeth Ewan

Alexander Wulfers @alexanderwulfers.com · 2d

"Bob Fogel said to me once: For economics to work without economic history is like an evolutionary biologist without paleontology. You just miss 99.5% of all the species that ever walked on this earth." Joel Mokyr www.youtube.com/live/__0sGvj...

LIVE: Nobel Prize in economics winner Joel Mokyr speaks

YouTube video by Reuters

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

Dael Norwood @dael.bsky.social · 2d

Awarding the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to someone for their work on how tech innovations generate economic growth only when ppl understand why they work is an interesting thing to do in a moment when AI’s most ardent proponents can’t explain how it works

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

Sander Wagner @sanderwagner.bsky.social · 2d

Harmonized administrative data allowed us to calculate regional motherhood earnings penalties for two (once three) very different countries.

How different?

None of the regional (thin lines - Nuts-2) motherhood penalties in France (abt 20%), East-Germany (abt 50%) or West-Germany (abt 70%) overlap.

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Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Kris Inwood

Amílcar E. Challú @amilcarchallu.bsky.social · 2d

Question for #envhist and humanities peeps: I’m working on an outreach plan supporting a wetland restoration project. Does anybody have recommendations of authors or projects using history to increase public awareness on restoration projects?

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

Joshua Gans @joshgans.bsky.social · 2d

Joel Mokyr won a Nobel prize today for showing that it isn’t enough to have inventions that work. You have to know how they work to have sustained growth. Think about that when you hear AI scientists continue to speculate but aren’t sure as to how generative AI models work.

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Reposted by Kris Inwood, Joshua Goodman

Erik Angner @erikangner.com · 2d

I hope philosophers of science will chime in on the Prize Committee's discussion about kinds of knowledge, and its dissemination, as drivers of innovation and competition: www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025... #PhilSci #NobelPrize

Useful knowledge
So – what creates this sustained economic growth? This year’s laureates used different methods to
answer this question. Through his research in economic history, Joel Mokyr has demonstrated that
a continual flow of useful knowledge is necessary. This useful knowledge has two parts: the first is
what Mokyr refers to as propositional knowledge, a systematic description of regularities in the natural
world that demonstrate why something works; the second is prescriptive knowledge, such as practical
instructions, drawings or recipes that describe what is necessary for something to work.
Mokyr shows that prior to the Industrial Revolution, technological innovation was primarily based on
prescriptive knowledge. People knew that something worked, but not why. Propositional knowledge, such
as in mathematics and natural philosophy, was developed without reference to prescriptive knowledge,
which made it difficult, even impossible, to build upon existing knowledge. Attempted innovations were
often haphazard or had approaches that someone with adequate propositional knowledge would have
understood were futile – such as building a perpetual motion machine or using alchemy to make gold.

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Reposted by Mark D. White, Kris Inwood, Noel D. Johnson , and 1 more Mark D. White, Kris Inwood, Noel D. Johnson, Matthias Schmelzer

Erik Angner @erikangner.com · 2d

That's like four economics awards in a row with a substantial economic-history component, right? That strikes me as a remarkable shift. www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists...

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Reposted by Kris Inwood, Patrick Svensson

Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 2d

More seriously: this is a great review essay from the late (and great) Nicholas Crafts on the Mokyr & Allen debate on the origins of the Industrial Revolution.

warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/econ...

Explaining the First Industrial Revolution: Two Views

10/2010 Nicholas Crafts, This review essay looks at the recent books on the British Industrial Revolution by Robert Allen and Joel Mokyr. Both writers seek to explain Britain’s primacy. This paper off...

warwick.ac.uk

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

Judith Jesch @judithjesch.bsky.social · 2d

Looks like I'll be busy next week. Do come along to one or all of these if you're in #Kirkwall! #Orkney #saga #runes #runology

Poster inviting people to an event about runic inscriptions in the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall, at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 20 October. For info email lorainejc@earthlink.net

Poster inviting people to a talk by Judith Jesch about her new book The Saga of the Earls of Orkney on Thursday 23 October in Orkney Library at 6.30 pm. To book phone 01856 873166,

Poster inviting people to a book signing with Judith Jesch of her new book The Saga of the Earls of Orkney in The Orcadian Bookshop on Saturday 25 October 12-2 pm.

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

Penn Material Texts @pennmaterialtexts.bsky.social · 3d

Previous talks from this semester and earlier can be accessed on our Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/@pennsworksh...

Penn's Workshop in the History of Material Texts

Founded by Peter Stallybrass in 1993, the Workshop in the History of Material Texts has been influential in its broad approach to the topic. We are interested in all aspects of how texts take material...

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Erwin Dekker, Kris Inwood

Nicolas Brisset @nbrisset.bsky.social · 3d

Hyped to read the special issue that goes with this introduction by @vhalsmayer.bsky.social and Eric Hounshell.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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Reposted by Kris Inwood, Evan Roberts

The Quarterly Journal of Economics @qjeharvard.bsky.social · 4d

Recently accepted by #QJE, “The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890–2006,” by Lyons (@ronanlyons), Shertzer (@econhist-allday), Gray (@econhistoryorbust), and Agorastos: doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1093/qje/...

Shibboleth Authentication Request

doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 4d

Wierda describes how population data (birthrates, racial categories) transformed the census into an "index of white anxiety," whose statistics shored up their speculations re: the demographic future of the US in the context of gradual emancipation in the 1840s & 1850s. #SHOT2025

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 4d

Our next speaker is Meagan Wierda, whose talk's title is derived from an 1849 warning from Frederick Douglass ("Already our enemies are gravely speculating upon our final extinction.") Her paper looks @ how ppl used the 1850 census to speculate re: the future of African Americans in the US #SHOT2025

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Kris Inwood @kris-inwood.bsky.social · 5d

Brilliant!

Reposted by Kris Inwood, David Stott

T. J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 5d

Doomscrolling break!
I imagine every historian has a list of Most Neglected Aspect of History. I welcome them in the replies. Here's a thread on my candidate:

The California steamship lines from 1849–1869, during the gold rush until the first transcontinental railroad's completion.

My case:
🧵
1/15

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Reposted by Kris Inwood, Valerie Mueller, Kathleen J. Mullen , and 3 more Kris Inwood, Valerie Mueller, Kathleen J. Mullen, Aaron Sojourner, Jacob T. Levy, Juliet Johnson

Nico Ajzenman @nicolasajz.bsky.social · 5d

🍁🍁Hello! We hiring in the junior market! 🍁🍁

Apply to work with us at McGill's Econ department!

Full ad: econjobmarket.org/positions/11...

EJM - Econ Job Market

econjobmarket.org

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

National Library of Ireland @nlireland.bsky.social · 5d

💻 Fortunately, remote access is available.

Free to join but registration required:
www.nli.ie/news-stories...

No Time to Wait Conference Returns for its 9th Edition at the NLI from 15-17 October 2025

www.nli.ie

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Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Kris Inwood

Social Science History Association @socscihistory.bsky.social · 5d

Our 50th Meeting program is nearly complete. If you plan to come to the conference, book your hotel soon as the special rate ends on October 15th. To find out how and to register for the conference, visit: ssha.org/conference/t...

Travel and Hotel Information | Social Science History Association

Travel and Hotel Information SSHA 2025 will be held at the Palmer House Hotel in downtown Chicago, a usual stop for the SSHA. Rooms are $199 (USD) per night ...

ssha.org

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Reposted by Kris Inwood, Aidan O’Sullivan

Charles West @pseudo-isidore.bsky.social · 5d

Dropped into the National Museum to say hello to some old friends.

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

Finn Arne Jørgensen @finnarne.me · 5d

At the «The Extraordinary Meaning of Ordinary Life: Joy Parr's Pioneering Vision in the History of Technology» lunchtime session at #shot2025. Francesca Bray introducing us to Joy before Sedona Micale shows us the film on Joy that she edited and produced.

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Reposted by Kris Inwood

Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 5d

Short BBC podcast about the history of Tippex, invented by Bette Graham 😍 - will be of interest to history of the book, and history of tech folks... www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Witness History - The secretary who made millions from her typos - BBC Sounds

In the 1950s, secretary Bette Graham invented correction fluid to cover up her errors

www.bbc.co.uk

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