Diego Castañeda Garza awarded prize for best doctoral thesis

The Prize Committee has decided to award the Economic History Association's prize for best dissertation since the last meeting to Diego Castañeda Garza, Uppsala University, for his dissertation – Wealth, War and Modernization.

The committee has valued the dissertation’s exceptionally high scientific quality, with a clear problem formulation and robust analysis of inequality, war, and institutional development. The dissertation also demonstrates theoretical advancement, drawing among other things on Piketty, and provides a nuanced view of the effects of war on economy and welfare. The research problem is thoroughly grounded, as evidenced by Diego’s broad engagement with relevant European and Latin American scholarship. The analysis and tone reflect clear intellectual vitality.

Furthermore, the dissertation is methodologically advanced, with robust statistical testing and critical discussion. The database constructed is an example of rigorous empirical work.

The originality is also significant:
Diego challenges existing knowledge—particularly the idea that war is always a “great leveler”—by showing that certain wars in Mexico increased inequality. He also combines political economy, economic history, and quantitative methodology in an original way. The potential for scientific impact is very high, as are the prospects for societal relevance in policy debates on inequality and development. The dissertation has strong potential to lay the foundation for future research of high international relevance.