Research

Publications

• Chambru, Cédric and Marx, Benjamin and Henry, Emeric (2024). The Dynamic Consequences of State-Building: Evidence from the French Revolution. American Economic Review, 114(11), pp. 3578-3622. doi: 10.1257/aer.20220110. [Replication package]
  • Media coverage: Broadstreet, VoxEU, VoxEU podcast, Econimate
  • Award: Oliver Williamson Best Conference Paper Award, SIOE 2022
• Chambru, Cédric and Maneuvrier-Hervieu, Paul (2024). Introducing HiSCoD: A New Gateway for the Study of Historical Social Conflict. American Political Science Review, 118(2), pp. 1084-1091. doi: 10.1017/S000305542300076X. [Replication data] [Website] [Raw data]
  • Media coverage: Le Monde, Ouest France
• Chambru, Cédric and Ben Salah, Mhamed and Fourati, Maleke (2024). The Legacy of Colonial Education: Evidence from Tunisia. Journal of Comparative Economics. doi: 10.1016/j.jce.2024.09.002.
  • Media coverage: VoxEU

• Chambru, Cédric (2023). Environmental shocks, religious struggle, and resilience: a contribution to the economic history of Ancien Régime France. European Review of Economic History, 27(4), pp. 638-640. doi: 10.1093/ereh/heac017. [PhD manuscript]

• Chambru, Cédric and Maneuvrier-Hervieu, Paul (2023). The Evolution of Wages in Early Modern Normandy (1600–1850). The Economic History Review, 76(3), pp. 917-940. doi: 10.1111/ehr.13220.

• Chambru, Cédric and Viallet-Thévenin, Scott (2022). Attaining Autonomy in the Empire: French Governors between 1860 and 1960. Social Science History, 46(4), pp. 831-859. doi: 10.1017/ssh.2022.20.

• Chambru, Cédric (2020). Economic shocks, Poverty and Crime in Eighteenth-century Savoy. Explorations in Economic History, 78, p. 101353. doi: 10.1016/j.eeh.2020.101353.

• Chambru, Cédric and Viallet-Thévenin, Scott (2019). Mobilité sociale et Empire : les gouverneurs coloniaux français entre 1830 et 1960. Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, 66(4), pp. 53-88. doi: 10.3917/rhmc.664.0053.

Monograph

• An Empire on the Move: Mobility and Structuration of the Elites in the French Imperial Space, 1880–1950 (with Scott Viallet-Thévenin) [Book under contract with Palgrave Macmillan]

Working papers

• Do it Right! Leaders, Weather Shocks and Social Conflicts in Pre-Industrial France (1661-1789). [Working paper]

Work in progress

• Trade Shocks, Rural Protests and Political Behaviour in Revolutionary Normandy (with Paul Maneuvrier-Hervieu)
  [Abstract]

  In 1787, the application of the Eden Treaty established a competitive system between France and England. In Normandy, one of the most industrialised region of France, the cotton textile imports from Britain caused a sharp decline in the regional industrial production. Unable to sustain the competition from England, Norman manufacturers had to reduce their production, dismiss workers, or declare bankruptcy. In the following months, unemployment and vagrancy quickly rose and many social conflicts occurred in different parts of the province. In this paper, we explore the socio-economic consequences of this trade agreement on political behaviour during the French Revolution. Using merchants' bankruptcy records, state surveys quantifying begging and unemployment, and data on the spread of social conflict data, we document that the Eden-Agreement had a large socio-economic impact on parishes specialised in the textile industry. We further show that these municipalities were more likely than their counterparts to support the French Revolution and the Jacobin government.

  • Media coverage: Le Monde

• Plagues, Wars and Wages in Late Medieval Normandy (with Paul Maneuvrier-Hervieu)
  [Abstract]

  In this paper, we propose to analyse the evolution of Norman wages from 1300 to 1600. We rely on new data on wages and prices to estimate series of wages for daily rural and urban skilled and unskilled labourers as well as a tentative series for male annual labourers. In Normandy as elsewhere in Europe, the Black Death and the plague of 1361 initiated a severe demographic crisis. Beyond plagues, Normandy had also to face the consequences of the Hundred Year War between England and France. The effect of the occupation of Normandy by English troops between 1417-9 and 1450 is, however, quite uncertain. The constant demand of supplies certainly drove increases in crop prices, but the demand for craftsmen to construct new fortifications required to hold the territory also plausibly increased labour scarcity and wages. Using data on population derived from hearth rolls for various years and spatial variations in the exposure to the English occupation, we try to understand how plagues, wars and labour scarcity articulated and could explain the formation/evolution of wages during the 15th century in Normandy.

• The Biological Standard of Living of Swiss Mercenaries, c. 1750-c. 1850 (with Simon Hediger, Jakob Metzler and Ulrich Woitek)
  [Abstract]

  Although the practice of hiring out citizens to fight for foreign countries lost its importance for generating income during the 18th Century, Swiss mercenaries sent by the state were still under contract up until the mid of the 19th Century. The contracts contain, among other information, height as a means of identification and as an indication of fitness for service. We use this data to look at the change in the biological standard of living in the period c. 1750–c. 1850, considering the specific nature of the mercenary trade. Besides correcting for truncation, the wealth of available data allows distinguishing between birthyear and measurement year effects. Preliminary results show that not taking the measurement year effect into account would lead to a misinterpretation of the changes in the biological standard of living in the period and region of interest. To check whether our results are not just due to the specific population subgroup we analyze, we compare them with data from prison records and passport registers.

• The Occupational Structure of Switzerland, c. 1750-c. 1850 (with Ulrich Woitek)
  [Abstract]

  In this paper, we propose to reconstruct the occupational structure of Switzerland at the turn of the 19th century. We rely a variety of sources, including population censuses, citizen registers (Bürgerverzeichnisse), marriage certificates, passport data, and prison records to estimate the regional distribution of employment at the sector (primary, secondary, tertiary) and sub-sectors (farmers, miners, textile workers, transport workers, etc.) level between the mid-18th century and the mid-19th century. We discuss how each source can help dealing with indistinct denomination (e.g. labourer), and circumventing the issue of missing men and women. We show that if the structural transformation of the Swiss economy was slow during the 18th century, regional specialisation was well underway. We find evidence of industrial (spinning and weaving) activities across all Switzerland, but mostly Zurich and its eastern surroundings. In Jura, the rise of the watch industry also led to structural transformation shifting away the core of the economy from the agricultural sector. We posit these divergences may well have contributed to the large spatial inequalities observed across Switzerland in the 1850s.

• Real Wages in the Northwestern Alps (17th-19th Centuries)
  [Abstract]

  While Switzerland is nowadays one of the richest country in the world, we know very little about Swiss economic growth prior to the 19th century. After 1685, the inflows of French Huguenots contributed to the development of various industries, including watchmaking and painted textile (indiennes), in the western part of country. However, the overall effect on the local economy is poorly understood. In this paper, we address these shortcomings by analysing the evolution of real wages in Geneva and its surrounding areas from the late 17th century to the mid-19th century. We use primary and secondary sources to establish series of wages for daily skilled and unskilled male labour. To provide a tentative comparison, we also collect information on wages and prices for the Duchy of Savoy and the city of Lausanne.

• The Political Determinants of Social Unrest: Theory and Evidence from Early Modern France (with Matteo Camboni and Michael Porcellacchia)

Data collection

• Income and Wealth Inequality in 19th-Century Switzerland
  [Abstract]

  Recent research has explored the evolution of income and wealth inequalities in Switzerland over the 20th century. In particular, changes at the very top of the distribution have attracted the most attention, and especially with regard to behavioral responses to changes in wealth tax rates. Little is known, however, on the evolution of inequalities durign the economic take-off of Switzerland. In this paper, I provide an overview of income and wealth inequality in Switzerland during the 19th century by relying on newly collected data from municipal tax registers and cadastral registers.

• Protestantism, Human Capital and Religious Persecution: Evidence from Early Modern France

  • Media coverage: LSE Business Review