This research field at the department deals with the broad question of how structural change, institutions, trade, colonialism and globalization have affected the development and sustainability of our socio-economic systems historically.

Human society and nature have always impacted each other. Our research investigates economic growth, and its link with natural resource exploitation and the environment. It also investigates other growth-related processes of transformation and development such as why some are countries rich and other poor, agrarian transformations, state formation, industrialization, population growth, human and knowledge capital formation.