10 Nov 2025
As part of a project with Central European University, economist Claudia Steinwender will be combining the analysis of historical data with cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning and generative AI.
holds the Chair of Innovation and International Trade in the Faculty of Economics at LMU. | © LMU ECON
How did industrial policies shape the development of Central Europe? What influence did they have on business performance and technological innovation? And what lessons can we learn from this for today’s discussions around competitiveness and growth?
Claudia Steinwender, Professor of Economics at LMU Munich, and Gábor Békés, Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at Central European University in Vienna, will be addressing these questions as part of a joint three-year research project. The research team will examine how export promotion and export-dependent customs policy influenced economic development in Central Europe between 1870 and 1910. To this end, they will combine the perspective of economic history and historical data with cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning and generative AI. The basis for the research undertaking is newly compiled company data from archives in Vienna, Budapest, and other regions.
The focus will be on two historical interventions: the role of the Paris Exposition of 1900 in promoting Hungarian companies internationally; and export-dependent reductions of import tariffs in the milling industry in the 1880s. In addition, the research team will compile a catalog of economic policy measures from this period.
“The effectiveness of industrial policy is currently the subject of intense debate. But governments were already using policy instruments extensively in the 19th century. We will investigate how these measures shaped industrialization and the resulting growth paths,” says Claudia Steinwender.
External partners include Réka Juhász (University of British Columbia, Canada) and Tamás Vonyó (Bocconi University, Italy). Due to start on 1 January 2026, the project is funded through the Weave program for facilitating research collaborations across European borders.