Recent research into South-East European economic history reveals fascinating insights into important topics such as economic growth, income inequality, living standards, industrialisation, market integration, and more.
These insights come from a growing body of scholarship that combines rich historical data with modern economic analysis – highlighted in the following publications by members of our Centre.
Publications
Neubert, M. and Nikolić, S., 2026. Why railways fail: Colonial railways and economic development in Habsburg Bosnia-Herzegovina. Journal of Development Economics, Volume 181, April 2026, 103747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2026.103747
Kešeljević, A., Nikolić, S. and Spruk, R., 2026. Ethnic Conflicts, Civil War, and Economic Growth: Region-Level Evidence From Former Yugoslavia. Journal of Regional Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.70055
Arslantas, Y. and Kukić, L., 2025. Peasants into Muslims: Poverty and conversions to Islam in Ottoman Bosnia. The Economic History Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.70022
Nikolić, S., 2025. Spatial inequality in prices and wages within a late‐developing economy: Serbia, 1863–1910. The Economic History Review, 78(1), pp.207-234. https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13348
Nikolić, S., Novokmet, F. and Larysz, P.P., 2024. Income inequality in Eastern Europe: Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia in the twentieth century. Explorations in Economic History, 94, p.101594. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2024.101594
Ivanov, M. and Kopsidis, M., 2023. Industrialisation in a small grain economy during the First Globalisation: Bulgaria c. 1870–1910. The Economic History Review, 76(1), pp.169-198. https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13185
Kukić, L., 2023. The last Yugoslavs: Ethnic diversity and national identity. Explorations in Economic History, 88, p.101504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2022.101504
Mijatović, B. and Zavadjil, M., 2023. Serbia on the path to modern economic growth. The Economic History Review, 76(1), pp.199-220. https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13186
Morys, M., 2022. Has Eastern Europe Always Lagged Behind the West? Historical Evidence from Pre‐1870. Review of Income and Wealth, 68, pp.S3-S21. https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12537
Kukić, L., 2021. The nature of technological failure: patterns of biased technical change in socialist Europe. Journal of Economic Surveys, 35(3), pp.895-925. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12355
Mijatović, B. and Milanović, B., 2021. The real urban wage in an agricultural economy without landless farmers: Serbia, 1862–1910. The Economic History Review, 74(2), pp.424-448. https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12998
Morys, M. ed., 2021. The economic history of Central, East and South-East Europe: 1800 to the present. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315686097
Kukić, L., 2020. Origins of regional divergence: economic growth in socialist Yugoslavia. The Economic History Review, 73(4), pp.1097-1127. https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12967
Kukić, L. and Nikolić, S., 2020. Regional industrialization in Yugoslavia. In Erik Buyst, Bas van Leeuwen, and Robin Phillips (eds.), An Economic History of Regional Industrialization (pp. 79-100). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367197537
Kukić, L., 2018. Socialist growth revisited: insights from Yugoslavia. European Review of Economic History, 22(4), pp.403-429. https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/hey001
Nikolić, S., 2018. Determinants of industrial location: Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the interwar period. European Review of Economic History, 22(1), pp.101-133. https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/hex012
Morys, M. and Ivanov, M., 2015. The emergence of a European region: Business cycles in South-East Europe from political independence to World War II. European Review of Economic History, 19(4), pp.382-411. https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/hev011
Morys, M., 2014. South-East European monetary history in a pan-European Perspective, 1833-1948. In South-Eastern European Monetary and Economic Statistics from the Nineteenth Century to World War II. Austrian National Bank.
Morys, M., 2013. Discount rate policy under the Classical Gold Standard: Core versus periphery (1870s–1914). Explorations in Economic History, 50(2), pp.205-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2012.12.003