About
Address
Department of Social and Political Sciences
Bocconi University
Via Roentgen 1
20136 Milan, Italy
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @guido_alfani
Guido Alfani
I am a full professor of Economic History at Bocconi University, Milan. My areas of interest include
economic history and demography, with a focus on long-term dynamics, on economic inequality
and social mobility, and on the history of epidemics and pandemics.
I am also an Affiliated Scholar of the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality (New York, U.S.); a
Research Fellow of CEPR – Center for Economic Policy and Research (London, U.K.) and a Research
Associate of CAGE – Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (Warwick, U.K.). At
Bocconi University, I am a member of the Dondena Centre for Research on Social Dynamics and of
IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research). During 2013-2019 I have served as
director of the Master of Science in Economic and Social Sciences at Bocconi.
I have also held visiting positions at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris, France);
the University of Glasgow (U.K.), with a grant from the Royal Society of Edinburgh; the Centre for
Population Studies of the University of Umeå (Sweden); the Université Bordeaux3 (France); the
Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure (U.K.), with a research grant
from Wellcome Trust; the Centre Roland Mousnier (Paris, France); the Nuffield College at Oxford
University (U.K.); the London School of Economics (U.K.); the Trinity College in Dublin (Ireland).
I am currently a member of the scientific committee of the Datini Foundation, of the international
advisory board of the Posthumus Institute-Research School for Economic and Social History and of
the board of trustees of the European Historical Economics Society (EHES). I am an associate editor
of Genus and a member of the editorial board of Explorations in Economic History and of the European
Review of Economic History. During 2009-2015 I have been the chief editor of the journal Popolazione
e Storia.
In 2011, I was awarded an ERC Starting Research Grant for the project EINITE – Economic Inequality
across Italy and Europe, 1300-1800 (project running from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2016).
In 2016, I was awarded an ERC Consolidator Research Grant for the project SMITE-Social Mobility and
Inequality across Italy and Europe, 1300-1800project running from 1 June 2017 to 31 May 2022).
Research Interest
“Economic and social inequality, social mobility, poverty, distribution and concentration of wealth and income in Europe during the Middle Ages and the early modern period, historical demography (history of plagues and other epidemics, history of famines), economic trends in pre-industrial Italy, social alliance systems and social networks, practices of godparenthood and name-giving.”
ACADEMIC AFFILIATIONS
Bocconi University (Milan, Italy)
Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality (New York, U.S.)
Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE, Warwick)
Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR, London)
IGIER – Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research (Milan, Italy)
Dondena Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (Milan, Italy)