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I am a Professor of Economics and Vice Dean at School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg.
My research interests are development economics, economic history, the political economy of conflict, and economic growth.
Email: ola.olsson@economics.gu.se
Phone: +46 766 181341
News:
"Floods, Droughts, and Environmental Circumscription in Early State Development: The Case of Ancient Egypt" (with Laura Mayoral) accepted for publication in Journal of Economic Growth (Feb, 2024)
"Cadasters and Economic Growth: A Long-Run Cross-Country Sample" (with Michelle D'Arcy and Marina Nistotskaya) (Dec, 2023) accepted for publication in Journal of Political Economy (slides)
Working paper: "Conditional Persistence? Historical Disease Exposure and Government Response to COVID-19" (with Annika Lindskog)(Nov, 2023) SSRN (slides)
Presentation of "Cadasters and Economic Growth: A Long-Run Cross-Country Sample" at the ABCDE Conference at the World Bank, Washington DC (slides)(June, 2023)
New working paper: "Sustainable Economic Growth: A Critical Assessment of SDG 8.1" (with Pelle Ahlerup) (April, 2023)
Recent publications:
"Deep determinants of economic freedom" forthcoming in Handbook of Research on Economic Freedom (ed. N. Berggren). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing (slides) (2024)
"Roman Roads to Prosperity: Persistence and Non-Persistence of Public Infrastructure" (with Carl-Johan Dalgaard, Nicolai Kaarsen, and Pablo Selaya) Journal of Comparative Economics (May, 2022)
"The Origins of Cultural Divergence: Evidence from Vietnam" (2022) (with Hoang-Anh Ho and Peter Martinsson) Journal of Economic Growth 27, 45–89.