Leandro Prados-de-la-Escosura is Emeritus Professor at Universidad Carlos III, Madrid and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He holds a D. Phil. (Oxford) and a Ph.D. Economics (Complutense, Madrid). He has taught at Georgetown University (Prince of Asturias Professor) and the University of California, San Diego. He has also been Honorary Maddison Chair (Groningen), Leverhulme Professorial Fellow (LSE), Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (Florence).
He has served as President of the European Historical Economics Society (EHES) (2001-2003) and on the Executive Committee of the International Economic History Association (2006-2012). He is an editor of the Economic History Review. He has been chief editor of the Revista de Historia Económica (1990-1994) and Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Surveys. He belongs to the Honorary and Scientific Advisory Boards of Cliometrica, the European Review of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History, and the Scandinavian Economic History Review.
He has published and edited monographs on long-run growth and distribution in Spain, Latin America since its independence, the costs and benefits of European imperialism, British exceptionalism during the Industrial Revolution, and the sources of long-run growth. He is the author of Spanish Economic Growth, 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 (Springer, 2024). His current research interests are economic freedom and well-being in historical perspective, as well as Spain’s economic development in the very long run.
Discussion paper
DP17151 Health, Income, and the Preston Curve: A Long View
Discussion paper
DP15616 The Napoleonic Wars: A Watershed in Spanish History

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Economic freedom, 1850–2020: New evidence
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- Economic history 
- Politics and economics

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Subjective well-being during Spain’s decline: Evidence from Crusade Bulls
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- Economic history 
- Poverty and Income Inequality

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Health, income, and the Preston curve
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- Health Economics

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A long-run perspective on the productivity slowdown: Spain since 1850
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- Economic history 
- Productivity and Innovation

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Growth recurring in a preindustrial economy: Spain in a half-millennium perspective
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- Economic history