XIII AEHE International Congress

The 13th International Conference of the Spanish Association of Economic History (AEHE), which is organised by the Department of Economic History and Institutions of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and the Cliobasque research group (member of the Basque university system), will be held in Bilbao at the Bizkaia Aretoa, a modern building conceived to host all kinds of social, academic and scientific events. It is located in Bilbao’s Abandoibarra district and was designed by architect Álvaro Siza (it is the building on the right-hand side in the above photo). The Abandoibarra area, which is situated in the centre of Bilbao, is probably the best example of the urban regeneration experienced by Bilbao in the last 25 years. This transformation has received several international awards the last of which has been the European City of the Year in 2018. The conference will bring together around 400 participants, most of them from Spanish and Latin American universities. They will present their research papers in a number of plenary and parallel sessions.

The conference will revolve around the central theme of the role of science, technology and innovation in long-term historical economic development. This theme has been chosen because it reflects very closely the economic transformation undergone by the Basque Country in the last thirty years. The Basque Country is currently one of the NUTS2 European regions more industrialised and technologically advanced within the EU.