I was teaching Mokyr on the Industrial Revolution to my final-year economics students just last week. And next week, we're doing his work on the Great Irish Famine!

We have different publication norms and processes to biological sciences. Each paper we write is longer, peer review is more thorough. This paper was 10 years of work. We benefitted from the input of dozens of reviewers and scores conferences audiences. Please don't accuse us of doing bad science.

In economic history, we lead with the empirics. We uncover surprising patterns. We then propose plausible explanations. We test them as rigorously as possible, given data limitations. We conclude with the most convincing narrative, which is inherently falsifiable.

We let the data speak. We ran every suggested robustness test. We are a multidisciplinary team with expertise in economics, history and health. We consulted epidemiologists and famine experts. We have a nuanced argument that addresses biological, socioeconomic and institutional factors. Please.

Read this, follow the links, you'll get a sense of which disciplines contribute to this field: theconversation.com/soaring-food...

Or google another Nobel winner: Angus Deaton, who has written extensively on selection and scarring. Or maybe just read our article rather than questioning our qualifications.

Anthropometrics is a very well established field with many health economics and economic history contributions. Just google Robert Fogel, Richard Steckel or John Komlos. Or take a look at the journal Economics & Human Biology.

Thanks! Exports were mostly higher-value cash crops. Proceeds were used to buy cheaper, higher-calorie imports. So exports probably saved lives. There were plenty of policy mistakes, but this is probably not one of them. I have written on policy lessons: www.economicsobservatory.com/the-great-ir...

And a non-technical summary of our article is over on RTÉ Brainstorm @rtebrainstorm.bsky.social www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

The full article with @eoinaldo.bsky.social and Matthias can be accessed here:
doi.org/10.1111/ehr....

Thanks Robbie! I enjoyed my trip to Scotland, despite the winds... Yes, we first met at ASREC 2011, in DC. I think that's where I first met @essobecker.bsky.social too!

Our paper would not have been possible without the data digitisation efforts of our RAs: Thomas Boys, Paudie McKee, Andrew Richie, Kyle Richmond and Holly Shannon.