Events

Keynote Lecture by Leandro Prados de la Escosura

The Spanish economy in the mirror of history. Efficiency, prosperity and decline in the very long term

On Tuesday 29 September 2026 at 7.00 pm, the Rafael del Pino Foundation organised the Keynote Lecture by Leandro Prados de la Escosura entitled "The Spanish economy in the mirror of history. Efficiency, prosperity and decline in the very long term». Following the lecture, Professor Prados de la Escosura will be in conversation with Vicente J. Montes Gan, Director of the Rafael del Pino Foundation.

Leandro Prados de la Escosura, Professor Emeritus of Economic History at Carlos III University in Madrid and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research in the United Kingdom, is also the Rafael del Pino Professor. He holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Economics from the Complutense University of Madrid, and has taught at Georgetown University (as the Prince of Asturias Chair) and the University of California, San Diego. He has held the Maddison Honorary Chair at the University of Groningen and has been a Leverhulme Professorial Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (Florence).

He has chaired the European Historical Economics Society and has been a member of the Executive Committee of the International Economic History Association. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Economic Surveys and Cliometrica and was editor of the Journal of Economic History. He is on the advisory boards of the European Review of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History and the Scandinavian Economic History Review.

He has published and edited monographs on growth and distribution in Spain and Latin America since independence, the costs and benefits of European imperialism, British exceptionalism in the age of the Industrial Revolution, and the sources of long-term growth. His most recent books include Economic Growth in Spain, 1850–2015 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), Human Development and the Path to Freedom (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and A Millennial View of Spain’s Development: Essays in Economic History (Frontiers in Economic History). He is currently conducting research into economic freedom and global well-being from a historical perspective, and into Spain’s economic development over the very long term.

If you would like to attend, please contact the Foundation by e-mail at confirmaciones@frdelpino.es.

The Rafael del Pino Foundation is not responsible for the comments, opinions or statements made by the people who participate in its activities and which are expressed as a result of their inalienable right to freedom of expression and under their sole responsibility. The contents included in the summary of this conference are the result of the debates held at the meeting held for this purpose at the Foundation and are the responsibility of their authors.

The Rafael del Pino Foundation is not responsible for any comments, opinions or statements made by third parties. In this respect, the FRP is not obliged to monitor the views expressed by such third parties who participate in its activities and which are expressed as a result of their inalienable right to freedom of expression and under their own responsibility. The contents included in the summary of this conference are the result of the discussions that took place during the conference organised for this purpose at the Foundation and are the sole responsibility of its authors.