News
Lindert-Williamson Prize awarded to Posthumus fellow Maanik Nath
At the 85th Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association, held in Philadelphia, PA (USA) on 5-7 September 2025 the biannual Peter Lindert-Jeffrey Williamson Prize was awarded to Dr Maanik Nath, fellow of the N.W. Posthumus Institute and assistant professor in Economic History at Utrecht University for his publication Capital Shortage: Credit and Indian Economic Development, 1920–1960 (Cambridge University Press, 2023). The Peter Lindert-Jeffrey Williamson Prize is awarded every other year for an outstanding Book in Global, African, Asian, Australian, and/or South American Economic History.
In this book Maanik Nath researches the causes of persistent poverty in the population of India in colonial and postcolonial times. He finds that the pervasive high cost and shortage of capital affected the peasant’s ability to invest in land. The productivity of land, as a result, remained small and changed little. Bridging economic theory and historical evidence, Capital Shortage shows that climate, law, policy design, and interactions between these factors, perpetuated a stubborn cycle of low investment and widespread deprivation over several decades. These findings can be tested against credit and development in preceding and succeeding periods as well as positioned in comparative global context.
In 2024, Maanik already also received the First Monograph Prize in Economic and/or Social History, awarded by the Economic History Society, for the same publication.
The N.W. Posthumus Institute congratulates Maanik with this award!
