Events

Event Description

 “Political Economic Lessons from the US Civil War”

Andreas Ferrara is an economic historian working on topics related to labor economics and political economy including migration, discrimination, and culture. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Warwick, UK, and has been assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh since the fall of 2019. His work has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Journal of Labor Economics, among others. 

In this talk, Andy Ferrara will summarize lessons from my work on the US Civil War on the ways in which people in positions of power and authority can shape economic and political outcomes. First, Ferrara will review how the Confederate diaspora of Southern White individuals that migrated after the Civil War played a pivotal role in spreading Confederate symbols and racial norms across the United States by the early 20th century. By leveraging positions of authority, they shaped institutions and policies that entrenched racial norms and inequalities in labor markets, housing, and the criminal justice system. Second, Ferrara will review research on how the Southern white migrants created new electoral possibilities for a broad-based coalition with economic conservatives. With their considerable geographic scope, these migrants hastened partisan realignment and helped catalyze and bolster a New Right movement with national influence over the long run. Last, Ferrara will turn to the Union Army to explain how leaders in the Union Army implemented successful strategies of team cohesion.