Publications

Journal articles

I. de Zwarte, H. Moret and P. de Zwart, “Between Famine and Freedom: Food Prices during the Indonesian War of Independence, 1945-49”, Economic History Review (conditionally accepted).

M. Hup and P. de Zwart “Brain Gain in Late Colonial Indonesia: New Evidence on Migration and Wages”, Journal of Economic History (conditionally accepted).

M. Moatsos and P. de Zwart, “Real Wages across the World: Insights from Linear Programming and Accounting for Climate Differences”, Economics and Human Biology (accepted, forthcoming).

H. Carvalhal, J. Lucassen, J. Stephenson and P. de Zwart (2025). “Introduction: Wage Systems and Inequalities in Global History”, International Review of Social History: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859025000070

P. de Zwart (2025), “The long-run evolution of global real wages”, Journal of Economic Surveys 39 (2): 489-516 http://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12592

P. de Zwart, K.H. O’Rourke and M. Lampe (2024), “The Last Free Traders? Interwar Trade Policy in the Netherlands and Netherlands East Indies”, Economic History Review 77 (3): 1057-1085: http://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13308

H. Carvalhal, J. Lucassen and P. de Zwart (2023), “After da Gama: Real wages in Western India, c. 1500-c. 1650.” European Review of Economic History. First view: https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/head026.

P. de Zwart and P. Soekhradj (2023), “Sweet equality: Sugar, property rights and land distribution in colonial Java”, Explorations in Economic History: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2023.101513

Read Blog about this research at VoxEU.org

P. de Zwart, D. Gallardo-Albarrán & A. Rijpma (2022), “The Demographic Effects of Colonialism: Forced Labor and Mortality in Java, 1834-1879”, Journal of Economic History: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050721000577

Discussed in Dutch newspapers: NRC, Trouw, Reformatorisch Dagblad.
Blogposts at Voxeu.org & Long-Run Health Matters.
Runner-up (2nd place) Wageningen Research Award 2021.

P. de Zwart (2022), “Inequality in Late Colonial Indonesia: New Evidence on Regional Differences”, Cliometrica 16, pp. 175-211: DOI: 10.1007/s11698-020-00220-3 [open access].

“Riset: bagaimana wajah ketimpangan Indonesia pada zaman kolonial Belanda?” The Conversation (16-08-2022) [Article discussing this research on Indonesian news and academic platform.].
“Mapping inequality in Dutch colonial-era Indonesia”, The Conversation & The Jakarta Post (18-08-2022). [English translation and republication in newspaper.]

D. Gallardo-Albarrán & P. de Zwart (2022), “The regional impact of an epidemic: socioeconomic and demographic data in Java, 1905-1924”, Data in Brief 40: 10.1016/j.dib.2021.107710

D. Gallardo-Albarrán & P. de Zwart (2021), “A Bitter Epidemic: The Impact of the 1918 Influenza on Sugar Production in Java”, Economics and Human Biology 42: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101011 [open access].

P. de Zwart (2021), “Globalisation, Inequality and Institutions in West Sumatra and West Java, 1800-1940”, Journal of Contemporary Asia 51, pp. 564-590 [open access, PDF].

P. de Zwart and J. Lucassen (2020), “Poverty or Prosperity in Northern India? New Evidence on Real Wages, 1590s-1870s”, Economic History Review 73 pp. 644-667 [open access, PDF].

P. de Zwart (2020), “Commodity Production and Indigenous Institutions in Southeast Asian Long-Run Economic Development”, International Review of Social History 65, pp. 481-494. [open access, PDF].

P. de Zwart (2019), “The Global History of Inequality”, International Review of Social History 64, pp. 309-323 [PDF]. Open access version available here.

P. de Zwart (2018), “The Future of Global Economic History: Regional Comparisons to Address Global Questions”, TSEG – Low Countries Journal for Social and Economic History 15, pp. 129-142 [open access, PDF].

P.M. Solar and P. de Zwart (2017), “Why were Dutch East Indiamen so slow?”, International Journal of Maritime History 29, pp. 738-751 [open access, PDF].

Discussed in Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (4-12-2017).

P. de Zwart (2016), “Globalization in the Early Modern Era: New Evidence from the Dutch-Asiatic Trade, c. 1600-1800”, Journal of Economic History 76, pp. 520-558. [PDF]

P. de Zwart and J.L. van Zanden (2015), “Labor, Wages and Living Standards in Java, 1680-1914”, European Review of Economic History 19, pp. 215-234. [open access “editor’s choice” article, PDF]

P. de Zwart (2013), “Real Wages at the Cape of Good Hope: a Long-Term Perspective, 1652-1912”, TSEG – Low Countries Journal for Social and Economic History 10, pp. 28-58. [PDF]

P. de Zwart (2012), “Population, Labour and Living Standards in Early Modern Ceylon: a Contribution to the Divergence Debate”, Indian Economic and Social History Review 49, pp. 365-398. [PDF]

P. de Zwart (2011), “South African Living Standards in Global Perspective, 1835-1910”, Economic History of Developing Regions 26, pp. 49-74. [PDF]

Monographs

P. de Zwart and J.L. van Zanden (2018), The Origins of Globalization: World Trade in the Making of the Global Economy, 1500-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [order here].

Reviewed for EH.net, American Historical Review, Economic History Review, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, International Review of Social History, TSEG-Low Countries Journal for Social and Economic History, Comparativ, & Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte.

P. de Zwart (2016), Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence. Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company’s Commercial Empire, c. 1600-1800. Leiden & Boston: Brill 2016 [order here].

Reviewed in the Economic History Review, Bulletin for Indonesian Economic Studies, Journal of World History & Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis.
Won the British Economic History Society’s Thirsk-Feinstein Prize for Best Dissertation in Economic and Social History in 2016.

Edited volumes & Special Issues

Hélder Carvalhal, Kathryn Gary, Jan Lucassen, Judy Z. Stephenson, Pim de Zwart, eds. (2025). Wage Systems and Inequalities in Global History. Special issue for the International Review of Social History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

K. Hofmeester and P. de Zwart, eds. (2018), Colonialism, Institutional Change and Shifts in Global Labour Relations. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press [open access, PDF].

Reviewed in TSEG – Low Countries Journal for Social and Economic History.

Chapters in edited volumes

P. de Zwart (2024). “Quantification: Measuring Connections and Comparative Development in Global History”, in: J. Osterhammel and S. Gänger (eds.), Rethinking Global History, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

P. de Zwart and D.O. Flynn (2021). “The Significance of Early Globalization: Evidence and Arguments”, in: R. Dobado-Gonzalez and Alfredo García Hiernaux (eds.) The Fruits of Early Globalization. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

P. de Zwart (2018), “1662: Koffie, wereldhandel en de consumptie-revolutie”, in. L. Heerma van Voss et al. (eds). Wereldgeschiedenis van Nederland. Amsterdam: Ambo Anthos, pp. 275-280. [order here].

K. Hofmeester and P. de Zwart (2018), “Introduction”, in: ibid. (eds.), Colonialism, Institutional Change and Shifts in Global Labour Relations. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press , pp. 1-20 [open access, PDF].

P. de Zwart, D. Marks, A.M. de Pleijt and J.L. van Zanden (2015), “Trade and Economic Development: Indonesia in the Long-Run” in: A. Schrikker and J. Touwen (eds.) Promises and Predicaments. Trade and Entrepreneurship in Colonial and Independent Indonesia in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Singapore: NUS Press 2015, pp. 61-79. [order here]

P. de Zwart, B. van Leeuwen and J. Li (2014), “Real Wages”, in: J.L. van Zanden et al. (eds.), How Was Life? Global Well-Being Since 1820. Paris: OECD, pp. 73-86. [PDF]

Book reviews

P. de Zwart (2022), “Review of ‘Anne Booth, Living Standards in Southeast Asia: Changes over the Long Twentieth Century, 1900-2015 (AUP, 2019)'”, South East Asia Research 30 (2022).

P. de Zwart (2022), “Review of ‘Jan Lucassen and Radhika Seshan (eds.), Wage Earners in India, 1500-1900: Regional Approaches in an International Context (New Delhi: Sage, 2022).'”, International Review of Social History.

P. de Zwart (2022), “Review of Sven Van Melkebeke, Dissimilar Coffee Frontiers. Mobilizing Labor and Land in the Lake Kivu Region, Congo and Rwanda (1918-1960/2) Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2020)”, TSEG/Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History.

P. de Zwart (2019), “Review of ‘Tirthankar Roy and Giorgio Riello (eds.) Global Economic History. London: Bloomsbury 2019′”, Economic History Review 72, pp. 1523-1525 [PDF].

P. de Zwart (2017), ‘Review of “Arturo Giraldez, The Age of Trade: The Manila Galleons and the Dawn of the Global Economy (Exploring World History)(Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)”, Journal of Early Modern History 21, pp. 137-141. [PDF]

P. de Zwart (2016), ‘Review of “Roman Studer, The Great Divergence Reconsidered. Europe, India, and the Rise to Global Economic Power (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2015)”’, International Review of Social History 61, pp. 156-158. [PDF]

P. de Zwart (2011), ‘Review of “Niall Ferguson, Civilization. The West and The Rest (London: Allen Lane, 2011)”’, Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History 8, pp. 113-115. [PDF]

Other media publications

P. de Zwart (2022), “Excuses voor slavernij? Dan ook voor de koloniale uitbuiting van Javanen”, Trouw (28-04-2022) [Op-ed in major Dutch paper].

P. de Zwart (2020) “Ecologische en Economische Geschiedenis van Indonesie”, Historici.nl (17-12-2020) [Blogpost at Dutch website for historians].

P. de Zwart (2019), “Wereld beter af zonder wereldhandelsorganisatie”, De Volkskrant (13-12-2019) [Opinion article about the demise of the WTO in a Dutch national newspaper].

P. de Zwart (2019), “Prijs van vrije handel is hoog”, Nederlands Dagblad (19-12-2019). [Opinion article about the demise of the WTO in a Dutch national newspaper].