Dr Paolo Di Martino

Department of Management
Reader in International Business History

Contact details

Telephone: 0121-414-2548
Fax: 0121 414 3217
Email: p.dimartino@bham.ac.uk

Address: University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Paolo Di Martino joined the Birmingham Business School in 2010 and was promoted to Reader in 2019. He has been lecturer in Economic History at the University of Bristol (2002-2004), Birmingham (2004-2005) and Manchester (2005-2010). In 2008 he has been junior visiting fellow at the Department of Economic History of the London School of economics.

He gained his PhD in Economic History at the Department of Economics of the University of Pisa (Italy).

In the past he has published work on banking, financial, and monetary history and theory in various journals, including Business History, Urban History, and the History of Economic Ideas.

Recent research focuses on the links between legal institutions and economic performance, in particular between bankruptcy and insolvency laws and practices and issues of financial intermediation and business governance. On this topic he published various book chapters andarticles in international journals such as Business History, Histoire et Measure, and the Economic History Review.

Qualifications

1995 First degree in Economics, Department of Economics, University of Pisa (Italy)

1999 PhD in Economic History, Department of Economics, University of Pisa (Italy)

Teaching

Intermediate Business Economics and the Macroeconomy (Undergraduate, year 2)

Models of Business (Undergraduate, year 2)

Modern Capitalism (Undergraduate, year 3)

Postgraduate supervision

Legal institutions and economic performance

Banking, monetary, and financial history.

The evolution of business in the long term.

Micro credit and micro finance

Research

Legal institutions and economic performance
Banking, monetary, and financial history
The evolution of business in the long term
Micro credit and micro finance

Research project, research interests, funds and grants:

“Re-doing business: Insolvency and bankruptcy legislation, models of business, and firms governance in historical and comparative perspective (1900-2010)”. Sponsored by the Leverhume Trust, International Network Grant. £22,239, September 2014-August 2016

Banking, finance, and money in the age of the international gold standard (1870-1913)

Other activities

MSc Business management suite – year one coordinator

Publications

Selected recent publications

(with Michelangelo Vasta, University of Siena, Italy), “Revisiting the Italian ‘economic miracle’: law, firms’ governance and management (1950-1973)”, Business History Review, forthcoming 2017
“Politics, society, and culture in the world of production: some reflections on Francesca Carnevali’s legacy”, in Paolo Di Martino, Andrew Popp, and Peter Scott (eds.), People, places and cultures. Essays in honour of Francesca Carnevali, Boydell & Brewer, 2017
(with Michelangelo Vasta, University of Siena, Italy), “Happy birthday Italy? Institutions and economic performance in Italy since 1861”, Enterprise and Society, 16 (2), 2015, pp 291-312.
(With Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur), “The functioning of bankruptcy law and practices in European perspective (c. 1880-1913)”, Enterprise and Society, 14 (3), 2013, pp. 579-605.
(With Shaker Sarsour), “Microcredit in Palestine (1995-2008): a business history perspective”, Business History, 54 (3), 2012, pp. 441-461
“Legal institutions, social norms, and entrepreneurship in Britain (c.1890-c.1939)”, The Economic History Review, 65 (1), 2012, pp. 120-143
(with M. Vasta), “Companies’ insolvency and ‘the nature of the firm’ in Italy, 1920s-1970s”, The Economic History Review, 63, 1 (2010), pp. 137–164