Association St. Louis, Missouri, September 18-20, 2026

Many economists and historians have presented powerful arguments for the importance of institutions in shaping economic outcomes. Distributional considerations are often considered as paramount drivers of institutional change or stasis. Thanks to a rising tide of data, we have made much progress in studying structure—namely, measuring the causal impact of a very wide variety of policies and institutions. We have made far less progress in understanding institutional diffusion or in understanding the persistence of institutions that affect aggregate welfare or inequality. In both cases, these are fundamentally endogenous processes. Our challenge as a discipline is how to bring to bear the methods of causal inference to the process of institutional change over the long term. Meeting this challenge forces us to consider how institutional change is shaped by history, the efforts of individuals and organizations, and economic shocks, including new technologies. We call for research that unites the analysis of which policies or institutions work best, and the circumstances of their adoption.
The Program Committee, chaired by Dan Bogart (University of California, Irvine), welcomes submissions on all subjects in economic history, though some preference will be given to papers that fit the theme of the conference. Papers should be submitted individually, but authors may suggest to the Committee that three particular papers fit well together in a panel. Papers should in all cases be works in progress rather than accepted or published work. Submitters should let the program committee know at the time of application if the paper they are proposing has already been submitted for publication. Individuals who presented or co-authored a paper given at the 2025 meeting are not eligible for inclusion in the 2026 program.
To submit a paper, use the following link. Paper proposals must include a 1,000-word proposal with a 150–word abstract suitable for publication in the Journal of Economic History. Paper URLs can be provided within the form above, but no attachments will be allowed. Paper proposals should be submitted by January 31, 2026, to ensure consideration. Please note that at least one of the authors must be an active member of the EHA at the time of submission. If you have difficulty with the form, please reach out to Jeremy Land at jeremy.land@helsinki.fi.
Graduate students are encouraged to attend the meeting. A poster session welcomes work from dissertations in progress. The poster submission system will open on or before February 1, 2026. Applications for the poster session are due no later than April 15, 2026, online on the meetings website.
The dissertation session, convened by William Summerhill (UCLA) and Karen Clay (Carnegie Mellon University), will honor six dissertations completed during the 2025-2026 academic year. The submission deadline is May 31, 2026. The Allan Nevins and Alexander Gerschenkron prizes will be awarded to the best dissertations on North American and non-North American topics respectively. To be eligible for the prizes, you must be a current EHA member at the time of submission. Dissertations should be submitted via the form at the following link. The form will also ask for 150-word abstract to be used for the program, if chosen as a finalist. For files above 10MB, the application form will include a space for a URL or link to download the full dissertation. All submissions will be acknowledged by return email.

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