Persistence studies: a new kind of economic history?

Since the early years of the 21st century, economists have started to look for the historical roots of current economic outcomes. In this article, we deal with this new approach (called persistence studies), as represented by the 75 articles published in ten leading economics journals since 2001. We outline the key features (issues, period, geographical area of interest, etc.) of these articles and we discuss their citational record, in comparison with the (much more numerous) economic history articles in the same journals. We also explore the affiliation and training of the 121 authors of persistence studies, highlighting the role of some Boston institutions as the cradle of the new approach.