The Poor Rich World

Did Europe Underdevelop Africa?

The Slave Trade Illustrates the Limitations of “Historical Economics”

Jun 28 • Joseph Francis

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The Rise of Europe, Recoded

Data Construction Is Again an Issue in Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson

Jun 10 • Joseph Francis

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May 2026

How to Win a Nobel Prize Using Mickey Mouse Numbers

We Need to Talk about Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson

May 26 • Joseph Francis

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Why Economic History Needs a Reformation

Time to Nail My Theses to the Church Door

May 22 • Joseph Francis

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March 2026

Reflections on My Adventures in Replication

My attempts to demonstrate the problems in the knowledge production system have led me to a Damascene conversion on the need for peer review

Mar 14 • Joseph Francis

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May 2025

It’s Existential Question Time for Academia

The rise of the machines means that academics must ask themselves “Why Do I Exist?”

May 8, 2025 • Joseph Francis

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March 2025

The Autumn of the White Patriarch

In a new paper, I trace the origins of the present moment in American politics

Mar 20, 2025 • Joseph Francis

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December 2024

Is Academia Killing Capitalism?

Joseph Schumpeter may have been right to fear academia, but it was for the wrong reasons.

Dec 30, 2024 • Joseph Francis

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From Argentina to American capitalism and slavery

Some comparative reflections on a book on Latin American state formation

Dec 20, 2024 • Joseph Francis

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The Poor Rich Nation becomes The Poor Rich World

Service announcement: I’m globalizing my blog

Dec 19, 2024 • Joseph Francis

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May 2024

Problems of democratisation

Two US Embassy documents shed some light on Peronism’s role in the origins of state terror in the 1970s

May 12, 2024 • Joseph Francis

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~6,000 pages of reports from the US embassy in Buenos Aires, c. 1960–1972

I have made available documents that I copied in the US National Archives over a decade ago

May 9, 2024 • Joseph Francis

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