Dondena Centre at Bocconi University (Milan, Italy), on 6-7 Octubre 2025.

After many decades of relative neglect, in the last fifteen years or so long-term trends in economic inequality have become the object of considerable attention. This process has mostly involved Europe, also due to the relative abundance of usable historical documentation, and (for the modern age at least) the Americas, but researchers have been hard at work to expand our knowledge of historical trends in inequality in other world areas. The accumulation of knowledge about the past has had important consequences for the general debate about economic inequality. In fact, today it is absolutely clear that it is not possible to truly understand not only the origins, but also the consequences and the real implications, of economic inequality in human societies of any time without adopting a long-run perspective.

The Inequality & History conference is aimed at bringing together research teams that have been working to reconstruct long-term trends in inequality, in different world areas and periods – from prehistory up until the modern era. The conference aim is to provide an opportunity for comparing the wealth of new information about inequality which is being unearthed, to favour cooperation between international scholars, to establish some clear criteria about how information on inequality could best be collated and presented, to establish the landmarks (‘what we know about inequality in history’) as well as to indicate the path for future research (‘what we don’t know, but we should know’). The conference will be the first in a series of international gatherings on economic inequality hosted by the Dondena Centre at Bocconi University (Milan, Italy).

All proposals about historical levels or trends in inequality of wealth or income in any part of the world are welcome. Preference will be given to proposals presenting new evidence from large-scale projects, reconstructing long-term trends and/or covering large areas.

The conference will take place at Bocconi University (Milan, Italy), on 6-7 October 2025. The organizers will cover the travel expenses of all accepted participants.

Proposals, inclusive of a title and a short abstract (max 250 words), should be sent to Guido Alfani (guido.alfani@unibocconi.it) and Mattia Fochesato (mattia.fochesato@unibocconi.it) by 10 July 2025. The outcome of the proposals selection process will be communicated by July 31