A Practitioner's Guide to Using Large Language Models and Generative AI in Economic History

Andreas Ferrara

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are lowering the entry barriers to working with exciting data sources that used to require strong data science skills, such as handwritten ledgers, text, images, or sound recordings. This guide provides an introduction for researchers who are new to LLMs. It sets out a step-by-step workflow for turning a research idea into working code and data, and describes the four main ways of interacting with an LLM: the chat window, editor-integrated assis tants, agentic coding tools, and the API. It then works through the decisions a practitioner meets in sequence, beginning with whether an LLM is the right tool and whether the data are allowed to be sent to one, then how to select models, write prompts, manage context limits, and control costs, and finally how to validate, reproduce, document, and correct LLM-generated measures in regression settings. A review of recent research shows how these tools already extract, link, har monize, and classify historical data at scale. Four worked examples with replication files illustrate the use of LLMs. They classify emotions in paintings, link census records without names, measure newspaper salience and sentiment around the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, and score the emotional delivery of Franklin D. Roosevelt's wartime speeches. The guide also condenses the workflow, the best-practice recommendations, and the preparation of replication packages into summary tables and checklists to aid applied economists.

Keywords: Large Language Models; Artificial Intelligence; Economic History; Practitioner's Guide JEL Classification: C8; N0; C55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ain and nep-his
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/c ... tions/wp810.2026.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: A Practitioner's Guide to Using Large Language Models and Generative AI in Economic History (2026)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cge:wacage:810

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jane Snape ().