Gareth Austin, "Discussion: Political Science and 'The New Economic History' of Africa"

Speaker: Gareth Austin, Reader in Economic History, London School of Economics.

Prof. Austin is interested in the comparative economic history of Africa, Asia and Latin America. His work deals with general theories of economic development, including those developed within Rational Choice perspectives, the New Institutional Economics, and "The New Economic History" of Acemoglu and Robinson, among others. He is author of Markets, Slaves and States in West African History (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press), and Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana: From Slavery to Free Labour in Asante, 1807-1956 (University of Rochester Press, 2005). Gareth Austin is also President of the Steering Committee of the European Network in Universal and Global History.