Research

Articles and book chapters

1. Martins, I. (forthcoming). Is the business of conquest the conquest of business? In: The Case Centre. 

2. Martins, I. and E. Green (forthcoming). Theoretical foundations of the economics of slavery from a global comparative analysis. In: Journal of Global History.

3. Cilliers, J., M. Mariotti, and I. Martins. (2024). Fertility responses to short-term economic stress: Price volatility and wealth shocks in a pre-transitional settler colony. In: Explorations in Economic History, 101620. [link]

4. Smythe, A., I. Martins, and M. Andersson (2024). Inequality, Poverty, and Economic Shrinking: How can developing countries build greater resilience for more sustainable development patterns?. In: International Journal of Development Issues, 23(1), 40–81. [link]

5. Martins, I. and S. Schwaag Serger (2023). An age of disentangled research?. In: Issues in Science and Technology, 40(1), 38–43. [link]

6. Martins, I. and S. Schwaag Serger (2023). Shifting patterns in international research cooperation. In: STINT, 23(1), 1–48. [link]

7. Axelsson, T. and I. Martins. (2023). Resilience to shrinking as a catch-up strategy: a comparison of Brazil and Indonesia, 1964–2019. In: Studies in Comparative International Development, 1–26. [link]

8. Martins, I., J. Cilliers, and J. Fourie (2022). Legacies of loss: The health outcomes of slaveholder compensation in the British Cape Colony. In: Explorations in Economic History, 101506. [link]

9. Martins, I. (2020). Collateral Effect: Slavery and Wealth in the Cape Colony. Ph.D. Thesis, Lund University. [link]

10. Palacio, A. and I. Martins. (2019). What caused poverty reduction in Brazil during the 2000s: sectoral growth or public expenditures? In: OASIS. Observatorio de Analisis de los Sistemas Internacionales, 32, 1–25. [link]

11. Palacio, A. and I. Martins. (2018). Poverty and Democracy: the Brazilian experience. In: Poverty, Politics and the Poverty of Politics, ed. D. Rauhut and N. Hatti. New Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, 193–210.  [link]

Works under review

12. Martins, I. (2025). Capital and Coercion: Slavery after the 1807 Import Ban in the Cape Colony. In: European Review of Economic History. (Revise and Resubmit).

13. Martins, I. (2025). Reasonable Harm: Teaching to Learn. In: Inspiring Minds. (Revise and Resubmit)

14. Martins, I. (2025). Theoretical foundations of the economics of slavery from a global comparative analysis. In: Frontiers in African Economic History. (In progress).

15. Smythe, A., and I. Martins. (2025). Resilience and Growth Theory: A Novel Conceptualisation of Convergence. In: Development and Change. (In progress).

Works in progress

16. Martins, I. and E. Green. What are institutions made of? A social contract approach.

17. Martins, I., S. Grab, and E. Green. Rainfall Patterns and Productivity in the Early Cape Colony.

18. Martins, I. Market Integration and the Development of Capitalism in Ghana, 1987–2005.

19. Martins, I., P. Aboagye, and G. Austin. The Ghanaian Divergence: Prices, Incomes and Living Standards after Independence.

20. Martins, I. Raising Capital to Raise Crops: Slave Emancipation and Agricultural Output in the Cape Colony.

Media, essays and other publications

21. Martins, I. (forthcoming). What is economic history? In: Tell me about [podcast]. 

22. Martins, I. (2025). The Pressure to Quantify Research Is Erasing Conceptual Depth. In: LSE Impact Blog. [link]

23. Kim, H., S. Schwaag Serger, E. Mobrand, and I. Martins. (2024). International Science Is Having a Messy Breakup. In: Research Professional News. [link]

24. Martins, I. (2023). Does a Negative Wealth Shock Affect Your Health? Evidence from an Episode of ‘Expropriation with Partial Compensation’ in Nineteenth-Century South Africa. In: Our Long Walk: Reflections on South Africa, from an Economic History Perspective. [link]

25. Martins, I. (2023). Legacies of Loss: The Health Outcomes of Slaveholder Compensation in the British Cape Colony. In: Frontiers in African Economic History. [link]