Research

With a primary focus on Africa, I examine the historical roots of inequality and the conditions that help households and countries withstand economic disruption. My work covers slavery and emancipation in the Cape Colony, labour markets and living standards in Ghana, climate and asset ownership, and economic resilience in developing countries.

Publications

14 works

Articles, chapters,
reports & thesis

Google Scholar ↗
Forthcoming

Living Standards in Ghana, 1955–2005

I. Martins

Labour and Work in Ghana Since Independence · Edited by Gareth Austin, Akua Britwum, Lamine Doumbia, Andreas Eckert, and Nana Yaw Sapong. London: Bloomsbury Academic

Forthcoming

Från arbetskraft till kapital: Slaveriets ekonomiska logik i globalt perspektiv

I. Martins and E. Green

Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift

Under review

5 manuscripts

The Case for Artisanal Doctoral Supervision

I. Martins

Studies in Higher Education · Revise and resubmit

Retrieval-Restricted Reasoning: Supporting Scholarly Synthesis with Language Models

I. Martins

Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History · Revise and resubmit

Slave Emancipation and Agricultural Output in the Cape Colony

I. Martins

Cliometrica · Submitted

Democracy and Rural Inequality in Kenya, 1997–2010

J. Makuei and I. Martins

African Affairs · Submitted

Work in progress

7 manuscripts

Income Inequality in Late Colonial Angola, 1940–1970

I. Martins

Wealth and Adult Mortality in a Pre-Industrial Settler Society: Evidence from Cape Probate Inventories

J. Cilliers and I. Martins

Held by the Elite: Monopoly Rights and Dynastic Persistence at the Cape Colony, 1680–1794

I. Martins, J. Schoots, and E. Green

Catch-up and Resilience to Shrinking, 1890–2019

A. Smythe and I. Martins

Forebearers: The forgotten women of the Cape Colony

J. Cilliers and I. Martins

What are institutions made of? A social contract approach

I. Martins and E. Green

The Ghanaian Divergence: Prices, Incomes and Living Standards after Independence

I. Martins, P. Aboagye, and G. Austin

Essays & media

11 contributions