ROME FRESH MEETING 2026
Transport, Infrastructure, and Long-Run Development: Historical Evidence
Faculty of Economics, Building B, Second Floor, Room C
MONDAY 28 SEPTEMBER
9:30 – 10:00 WELCOME
- 10:00 – 10:30 Stefan Nikolić, Railways and economic development in a small agrarian economy: Bulgaria, 1880–1910
- 10:30 – 11:00 Gianni Marciante, The Rise of the Knowledge Economy
11:00 – 11:30 COFFEE BREAK
- 11:30 – 12:00 Nico Meffe, Calling up Change: How the Spread of the Telephone Expanded Employment Opportunities for American Women from 1880 to 1940
- 12:00 – 12:30 Georgios Tsiachtsiras, Railroads and Literacy: Evidence from Italy
- 12:30 – 13:00 Luigi Pascali, The Republic of Letters and the Rise of the West
13:00 – 15:00 LUNCH
- 15:00 – 15:30 Andrea Xamo, The Spark and the Rail: The Effects of Railway Electrification in Italy, 1901–61
- 15:30 – 16:00 Michele Zampa, Paving the Way: Highway Access and the Reconfiguration of Local Labor Markets in Italy
- 16:00 – 16:30 Flavio Malnati, Fast Car to Boom and Bust: Transportation Technology and Its Causal Effects on Rural Economic Development
20:00 SOCIAL DINNER, Taverna Latina, Rome
TUESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER
- 10:00 – 10:30 Masahiro Kubo, Regime Change and Local Industrialization: Evidence from the Meiji Restoration
- 10:30 – 11:00 Tom Görges, Railways and the Educational Elite: Evidence from Nineteenth-Century Denmark
11:00 – 11:30 COFFEE BREAK
- 11:30 – 12:00 Victoria Bel, The Long-Term Impact of Railways on Economic Development and Nation-Building: Evidence from Ethiopia
- 12:00 – 13:00 Keynote speaker — James Fenske
13:00 – 15:00 LUNCH
- 15:00 – 15:30 Zahra Behrouzmoghadam, Transport Accessibility and Population Change in Spain (1800–1930): Evidence from a Reconstructed Multimodal Network
- 15:30 – 16:00 Luigi Moretti, The causal analysis of railways networks: Sources of endogeneity and the least-cost path approach
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Carlo Ciccarelli, Roberto Chimento, Enzo Pozza
romefresh2026@gmail.com

