Supervision philosophy
Economic history needs to be reinserted into the research and teaching agendas of economics departments and business schools. If you share that conviction, I am keen to work with you.
The academic job market is tough. My goal is to ensure that students graduate with a collection of interesting papers addressing important questions, and with the skills and confidence needed to develop an independent research agenda.
I help my PhD students to develop a strong second field alongside economic history, and to think explicitly about how their historical research can contribute to wider debates in that field.
Current PhD students
David Weatherup
PhD Economics · Co-supervisor with Michael Aldous
Business history, Suez canal, shipping, nineteenth-century Britain
Paudie McKee
PhD Economics · Assistant supervisor (supporting Daniel Borbely and David Jordan)
Public health, alcohol regulation, crime, interwar Britain
Yibin Liu
PhD Economics · Co-supervisor with John Turner
Financial history, financial crises, shareholder registers, Hong Kong
Malte Hinrichs
PhD Economics · Co-supervisor with Alan Fernihough
Industrial Revolution, water power, Germany, Scotland
Completed PhD students
Pallavi Singh (2026)
Kyle Richmond (2026)
Competition, market structure, and government policy in Britain, 1945–70
First placement: Lecturer (Education) in Economics, Queen’s University Belfast
Paul Winfree (2023)
The political economy of education and propaganda in the US South after the Civil War
First placement: Founder and CEO, Economic Policy Innovation Center, Washington, DC
Homer Wagenaar (2022)
Rules, discretion and industrialisation: the patent system of the Netherlands, 1817–1869
First placement: Postdoctoral fellowship in economic history, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Stephen Billington (2019)
Patents, machine learning, and war: invention during the British Industrial Revolution
First placement: Tenure-track post in economics, Ulster University Business School, Belfast
Nikita Lychakov (2018)
Industrialisation, politics and banking instability in late Imperial Russia
First placement: Postdoctoral fellowship in history, Higher School of Economics, Moscow
Stuart Henderson (2017)
Historical reflections on religion, finance and economic development
First placement: Tenure-track post in finance, Dublin University of Technology