Network Analysis for Economic, Business and Financial History: Methodological Advances and Applications (Palgrave Studies in Economic History) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3032213541 ISBN 13: 9783032213549

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2026

Synopsis

This book presents a state-of-the-art picture of advances in social network research for economic, business, and financial historians. It showcases recent development in the methodology and application of social network analysis to historical research and draws out the unique benefits for economic history and related fields.

 

Social network analysis is increasingly understood to be an important part of historical research, allowing scholars to balance qualitative investigation with rigorous quantitative techniques. Through a global set of case studies spanning ancient, medieval, early modern and modern history, this edited volume demonstrates the interpretative potential of various SNA approaches to different sets of historical data. The chapters contribute to methodological understanding of SNA in economic history, as well as showing through the case studies how network analysis can decode complex social and economic interactions over time, making visible those relational patterns that were invisible to contemporary historical actors. This cutting-edge resource will be appeal widely to academics in economic, business and financial history, as well as statistics researchers and social scientists looking to strengthen their quantitative research skills.

About this title

About the Author

Maria Carmela Schisani is Professor of Economic History at the University of Naples Federico II.  She is affiliated researcher with the ISEM and ISMed institutes of the National Research Council (CNR). Her research interests focus mainly on financial and business history. She also specializes in network analysis applied to historical economic and financial data. She is author of several publications, some of them in high-impact international scientific journals such as Cliometrica, European Review of Economic History and Business History.

 

Giuseppe De Luca (Italy) is Professor of Economic History at the University of Milan and Director of the Bachelor’s programme in Economics and Management. He is Associated Researcher at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute of Mediterranean Europe History (ISEM). His research focuses on pre-industrial public debt, the role of notaries in lending markets, and the historical development of infrastructure and healthcare financing in Europe. He has led several major international research projects, including A-RING (2019–2022), and is co-editor of the journal Cheiron.

 

Giancarlo Ragozini is Professor of Social Statistics at the Department of Political Science, University of Naples Federico II. His research interests range from statistical methods for social network analysis to computational statistics and multivariate methods for data analysis, sport analytics, quantitative history, life course studies. He is author of over 150 publications (72 in Scopus), many of them in high-impact international scientific journals such as Social Network, Network Science, Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, Cliometrica, European Review of Economic History and Business History.

 

Paolo Cimadomo (Italy/USA) is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellow at Sapienza University of Rome, heading the EARTH (Earthquakes And Community Resilience Through Historical Analysis) project. He has held research positions at institutions like the University of Naples “Federico II”, the University of Haifa, Georgetown University in Washington DC and the University Sapienza of Rome. Cimadomo has also contributed to museum initiatives and possesses teaching experience at several universities. His research centers on the Eastern Mediterranean through Greek, Roman, and Late Roman periods, with focuses on network reconstruction, land use, climate influences, and environment-human interactions. Since 2019, he has applied social network analysis to studying the ancient past.

From the Back Cover

This book presents a state-of-the-art picture of advances in social network research for economic, business, and financial historians. It showcases recent development in the methodology and application of social network analysis to historical research and draws out the unique benefits for economic history and related fields.

Social network analysis is increasingly understood to be an important part of historical research, allowing scholars to balance qualitative investigation with rigorous quantitative techniques. Through a global set of case studies spanning ancient, medieval, early modern and modern history, this edited volume demonstrates the interpretative potential of various SNA approaches to different sets of historical data. The chapters contribute to methodological understanding of SNA in economic history, as well as showing through the case studies how network analysis can decode complex social and economic interactions over time, making visible those relational patterns that were invisible to contemporary historical actors. This cutting-edge resource will be appeal widely to academics in economic, business and financial history, as well as statistics researchers and social scientists looking to strengthen their quantitative research skills.

 

Maria Carmela Schisani is Professor of Economic History at the University of Naples Federico II. Her research focuses on financial and business history, with particular interest in social network analysis applied to economic history. 

 

Giuseppe De Luca is Professor of Economic History at the University of Milan. His research explores pre-industrial public debt, credit markets, and the historical development of infrastructure and healthcare financing in Europe.

 

Giancarlo Ragozini is Professor of Social Statistics at the University of Naples Federico II. His work focuses on network science, computational statistics, and quantitative methods applied to social data.

 

Paolo Cimadomo is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the Sapienza University of Rome. His research examines the ancient Eastern Mediterranean, focusing on networks, land use, climate, and human–environment interactions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3032213541
• ISBN 13: 9783032213549
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 544
• Editor: Schisani Maria Carmela, De Luca Giuseppe, Ragozini Giancarlo, Cimadomo Paolo