Research

Books

• Svorenčík, Andrej & Maas, Harro (2016) The Making of Experimental Economics: Witness Seminar on the Emergence of a Field, Springer. 245p.
  • 2019 Best Monograph Award of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought

Articles (most available on SSRN)

• Hoover, Kevin D., and Svorenčík, Andrej (forthcoming) Who Runs the AEA? A Preliminary Analysis. Journal of Economic Literature
• Desmarais-Tremblay, Maxime and Andrej Svorenčík (2021) A Prosopography of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought. The European Journal for the History of Economic Thought. 28(6): 1005-1024.
• Svorenčík, Andrej (2021) The Driving Forces behind the Rise of Experimental Economics. Review of Political Economy. 33(2), 344–361.
• Svorenčík, Andrej (2020) Rejecting Rejections—Seeking Acceptance of Experimental Economics in Economics Journals. Oxford Economic Papers. 72(4), 946–965.
• Feingold, Mordechai and Andrej Svorenčík (2020) A preliminary census of copies of the first edition of Newton’s Principia (1687). Annals of Science. 77(3), 253–348.
  • featured in the New York Times, The Times, and many other outlets 
• Jan Pokrivčák, Marián Tóth, Pavel Ciaian, Martin Bušík, and Andrej Svorenčík (2020) Why Direct Payments Cannot be Capped in Slovakia? A Political Economy Perspective. Prague Economic Papers
• Cherrier, Beatrice and Andrej Svorenčík (2020)  Defining Excellence: Seventy Years of the John Bates Clark Medal. Journal for the History of Economic Thought.
• Cherrier, Beatrice and Andrej Svorenčík (2018) The Quantitative Turn in the History of Economics. Journal of Economic Methodology. 25 (4) 1–10.
• Svorenčík, Andrej (2018) The Missing Link: Prosopography in the History of Economics. History of Political Economy. 50 (3): 605–613.
• Svorenčík, Andrej (2018) Creating Economics in the Lab: From Physical Place to Laboratory Space. Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology. 36B: 163–177.
• Jérôme Lange, Reinhard Schumacher and Andrej Svorenčík (2017) From Antiquity to Modern Macro: An Overview of Contemporary Scholarship in the History of Economic Thought Journals, 2015–2016. History of Economic Ideas 25(2): 172–207.
• Svorenčík, Andrej (2017) Allocating Airport Slots – The History of Early Applied Experimental Research. History of Political Economy. 49(5): 240–263.
• Maas, Harro and Andrej Svorenčík (2017) “Fraught with Controversy”: Organizing Expertise against Contingent Valuation. History of Political Economy, 49(2): 315–345.
  Mentioned in Le Monde
• Svorenčík, Andrej (2016) The Sidney Siegel Tradition: The Divergence of Behavioral and Experimental Economics at the End of the 1980s. History of Political Economy, 48(5): 270–294.
• Svorenčík, Andrej (2014) MIT’s Rise to Prominence: Outline of a Collective Biography. History of Political Economy, 46(5): 109–133.
  Mentioned & reviewed by Marginal Revolution in 2014 & 2015, Boston Globe, and Library of Economics and Liberty 

Book Chapters

• Došeková, Zuzana and Svorenčík, Andrej (2021) “The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Cultural Policy Response in Slovakia.” In Cultural Industries and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A European Focus, Edited by Elisa Salvador, Trilce Navarrete and Andrej Srakar. Routledge.
• Svorenčík, Andrej (2018) Prosopography: The Missing Link in the History of Economics In: T. Düppe, E. Roy Weintraub. The Contemporary Historiography of Economics. Routledge. 101–118.
• Svorenčík, Andrej (2010, 2015: 2nd edition) Experiments in Economics. In: J. Davis, M. Boumans Economic Methodology Understanding Economics as a Science. Palgrave Macmillan. 65–70.

Dissertation

• Svorenčík, Andrej (2015) The Experimental Turn: a History of Experimental Economics. University of Utrecht
  • A brief review on Marginal Revolution
  • 2017 Joseph Dorfman Best Dissertation Prize for the best dissertation in the history of economics by the History of Economics Society

In Slovak language:

    various policy briefs and op-eds

    Hospodárske Noviny

    Denník N

    SME

    co-editor of: Filko, Martin (2016) Svet podľa Filka. Slovart, 224p.

Upcoming presentations:

• Recent Shifts in the Boundaries of Economics: Philosophy and History conference (Paris, January 2022), Experimental Imperialism in Economics.
• Duke University Center for the History of Political Economy seminar (March 2022), 

Recent presentations:

• American Economic Association & ASSA Meeting 2022 (January 2022, online), A Tale of Two Laboratories: The Role of Computers in the Emergence of Experimental Economics.
• 24^th Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (Sofia, October 2022) Prosopography of of European Historians.
• Slovak Economic Association Meeting (September 2021, Nitra), Trends in the Publication of Experimental Economics Articles.
• Structural Reforms and Recovery and Resilience Program (panelist) Slovak Economic Association Meeting (online, December 2020).
• Košice Economic Forum (May 2020, online lecture) Spending Review on Culture.
• American Economic Association Meeting 2020 (San Diego, January 2020) Who Runs the AEA? Leadership Hierarchy in American Economics (with Kevin D. Hoover).
• Les Après-midi de Philosophie et Economie, The First Price Auction Controversy (Paris, November 2019).
• Cercle d’epistemologie economique, The Driving Forces Behind the Rise of Experimental Economics (Paris, November 2019).
• Doctoral Origins of Economics Faculty, Slovak & Czech Economic Association meetings (Brno, September 2019).
• 16^th STOREP conference (Siena, June 2019) The Driving Forces Behind the Success of Experimental Economics.
• History of Economics Society Annual Conference (New York, June 2019) Who Runs the AEA? Leadership Hierarchy in American Economics (with Kevin D. Hoover).
• Blanqui Lecture, 22^nd Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (Lille, May 2019).
• Martin Filko Prize lecture, Slovak Economic Association meetings (Bratislava, September 2018).
• Historical Network Research conference (Brno, September 2018) Doctoral Origins of Economics Faculty.
• History of Economics Society Annual Conference (Chicago, June 2018) The Doctoral Origins of Economics Faculty.
• 22nd Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (Madrid, June 2018) Prosopography of Experimental Economists.
• INET-YSI Workshop for junior scholars on Institutions and Communities in the History of Economic Thought (Madrid, June 2018) Invited as the main speaker.
• Prosopographical Methods in International and Economic History Workshop (Florence, May 2018) Who Runs the AEA? Leadership Hierarchy in American Economics (with Kevin D. Hoover).
• Prague Conference on Behavioral Sciences 2018 (Prague, May 2018) invited speaker.
• How to Write History of Economics Conference (Lausanne, October 2017) The Role of Prosopography in Writing Post-War History of Economics.
• Curiosity, Imagination and Surprise: Conference in Honour of Mary Morgan (Utrecht, September 2017) From Classrooms to Experimental Economics Laboratories.
• History of Economics Society Annual Conference (Toronto, June 2017) Prosopography.
• Brunel University (London, May 2017) 70 Years of the John Bates Clark Medal
• Research Seminar at Brunel University (London, April 2017) Networks of Leading Economists.
• Seminar University of Economics (Prague, March 2017) The Experimental Turn in Economics.
• American Economic Association Meeting 2017 (Chicago, January 2017) 1) Who Runs the AEA? Leadership Hierarchy in American Economics (with Kevin D. Hoover); 2) Networks of Leading Economists; 3) Defining Excellence: 70 Years of the John Bates Clark Medal (with Beatrice Cherrier).
• INET YSI Plenary (Budapest, October 2016) Allocating Airport Slots – The History of Early Applied Experimental Research.
• Economic Science Association (Jerusalem, July 2016) Screening of the Witness Seminar on the Emergence of Experimental Economics.
• History of Economics Society Annual Conference (Durham, June 2016):  Roundtable Practical Challenges of Writing Recent History.
• Seminar at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Marseille June 2016): The Experimental Turn in Economics
• Visualisation Meeting of the COST group: Reassembling the Republic of Letters, 1500–1800 (Como, April 2016): Census of Newton’s first edition Principia.
• History of Political Economy Annual Conference “Becoming Applied: the Transformation of Economics after 1970” (Duke University, April 2016) Learning How to Whisper in the Ear of Industry Regulators: the History of Early Applied Experiments.
• American Economic Association & ASSA Annual Meeting 2016 (San Francisco, January 2016) Learning How to Whisper into the Ears of Industry Regulators: The History of Early Applied Experiments      
• Texas A&M University (College Station, October 2015) The Experimental Turn: How Economics Became an Experimental Science
• Slovak Economic Association Meeting 2015 (Košice, October 2015) Networks of Chicago Economists
• History of Political Economy Annual Conference “Economizing Mind, 1870-2015. When Economics and Psychology Met ... or Didn't” (Duke University, April 2015): The Behaviorist Psychology Tradition in Experimental Economics 
• American Economic Association & ASSA Annual Meeting 2015 (Boston, January 2015) The Behaviorist Psychology Tradition in Experimental Economics 
• University of Mannheim Ringvorlesung Series (November 2014): The Experimental Turn: How Economics Became an Experimental Science 
• History of Economics Society Annual Conference. (University of Montreal, June 2014): Rejecting Rejections – the Passive Reception of Experimental Economics 
• Utrecht-Nijmegen Workshop on History and Methodology of Economics (Utrecht, January 2014): The Experimental Turn
• American Economic Association & ASSA Annual Meeting 2014 (Philadelphia, January 2014): The First-Price Auction Controversy

In Preparation 

• Reuben, Ernesto; Li, Sherry; Suetens, Sigrid; Svorenčík, Andrej; Turocy, Theodore, and Kotsidis, Vasileios (Revise and resubmit JESA) Trends in the Publication of Experimental Economics Articles. Journal of the Economic Science Association.
• The Experimental Turn in Economics (book under contract with Cambridge University Press)
• What’s in a Name? That Which We Call Economic Science Association • Experimental Economics: a Brief History
• All Quiet on the Economics Front (with Paul J. Pieper)

The overarching theme of my research in the field of history of economic thought is the emergence, diffusion, and reception of scientific communities, their related ideas and practices that make these epistemic groups distinct. I currently pursue three main research projects that present different ways of approaching my overarching theme:

1. History of Experimental Economics
2. Transformation of Economics through the Lens of Prosopography
3. History of the International Economic Association

1. History of Experimental Economics

There was a long tradition of defining economics as a non-experimental discipline. The emergence of experimental economics in the last third of the 20th century revisited this long-standing belief. The history of this new practice reveals that this went further than simply introducing the experimental method to economics. Its history, I argue, shows individual economists and research communities above all redefining the relationship between economic theory and rigorous data. Economists could not ignore or explain away as irrelevant replicable data that were specifically created in controlled environments to satisfy conditions set by economic theory. This reconceptualization entailed an active community of experimentalists who continually engaged in honing the experimental method and convincing the rest of the economics profession of the method’s merits. An alternative research infrastructure including a novel, dedicated research space—the economics laboratory—emerged. All these efforts culminated at the turn of the 1980s and can be summarily labeled the experimental turn in economics.

• Published 6 papers, 3 not part of my dissertation, see my list of publications above.
• Book manuscript based on my dissertation: The Experimental Turn: a History of Experimental Economics (2015)
  • Under contract with Cambridge University Press
  • A brief review of my dissertation on Marginal Revolution
• Published book The Making of Experimental Economics: Witness Seminar on the Emergence of a Field (2016)
  • This book is the transcript of a witness seminar on the history of experimental economics, in which eleven high-profile experimental economists participated. The witness seminar was constructed along four different topics: skills, community, laboratory, and funding. The transcript is preceded by an introduction explaining the method of the witness seminar and its specific set-up and resuming its results. The participants' contribution and their lively discussion provide a wealth of insights into the emergence of experimental economics as a field of research.
  • Participants of the seminar: Jim Friedman, Elizabeth Hoffman, Charlie Holt, John Ledyard, John Kagel, Charlie Plott, Stephen J. Rassenti, Alvin Roth, Reinhard Selten, Vernon Smith, Frans van Winden; Moderator of the seminar: Chris Starmer; One chapter by Andreas Ortmann.
• I collect a variety of data about experimental economics and economists
  • My worldwide list of experimental economics laboratories with data on their dates of creation and founders
  • List of Economic Science Association officers and conferences

   

2. Transformations of Economics through the Lens of Collective Biography

Over the 20th century economics went from a pluralistic and polycentric discipline employing primarily a discursive style of argumentation to one that was highly mathematical and quantitative, globalized, US-centric and with outsized influence on public policy. While historians of economic thought have studied particular aspects of these transformations independently by focusing on a handful of elite economists, the impact of the rapidly growing discipline with many non-elite economists in and especially outside academe (government, central banks, etc.) has been neglected as a factor in the discipline formation of economics. Furthermore, little is understood about the dynamics of how a small group of early adopters of new quantitative methods transformed a much larger profession, how these methods came to dominate a previously pluralist discipline, or how economists populated policy institutions. My research provides an innovative approach to the history of economics that eschews the traditional view of the history of economics as a succession of great minds and seminal ideas. I view these changes as interrelated historical phenomena and situate them within networks in which thousands of economists operate, their ideas diffuse, and credit is ascribed.   

• Five published/in-print papers:
  • Hoover, Kevin D., and Svorenčík, Andrej (forthcoming) Who Runs the AEA? A Preliminary Analysis. Journal of Economic Literature.
  • Desmarais-Tremblay, Maxime and Svorenčík, Andrej (2021) A Prosopography of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought. The European Journal for the History of Economic Thought. 28 (6): 1005-1024
  • Cherrier, Beatrice and Svorenčík, Andrej (2020) Defining Excellence: Seventy Years of the John Bates Clark Medal. Journal for the History of Economic Thought. 42 (2): 153–176.
  • Svorenčík, Andrej (2018) The Missing Link: Prosopography in the History of Economics. History of Political Economy. 50 (3): 605–613.
  • Svorenčík, Andrej (2014) MIT’s Rise to Prominence: Outline of a Collective Biography. History of Political Economy, 46 (5): 109–133.

3. History of the International Economic Association 

The International Economic Association has commissioned me write a book about its  history.

Special project: Census of 1^st Edition Copies of Isaac Newton’s Principia (with Moti Feingold)

Our project presents the first comprehensive census of all extant copies of the first edition of Isaac Newton’s magnum opus Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (1687) together with an accompanying account of its dissemination and early readership.

History of Economics

• Harro Maas (Lausanne)
  • history of experimental economics
  • website
  • link to our witness seminar volume

• Kevin Hoover (Duke)
  • collective biography (prosopography) of the American Economic Association
  • website

• Beatrice Cherrier (Ecole Polytechnique)
  • website

History of Science

• Mordechai Feingold @Caltech
  • Census of extant copies of Newton's first edition Principias (1687)
  • website
  • academia