Philip T. Hoffman's Research
Why is it that some countries have grown rich, while others remain mired in abject poverty? What institutions--legal, political, social, and economic--affect economic growth, hindering it or spurring it along? And how do we explain long run historical change in politics, society, and the economy?
As an economic historian, these are the questions that I try to answer, and my current research falls into three areas:
- studying the long run evolution of financial institutions and their effect on economic growth. My research here includes coauthored articles on the development of mortgage and long term credit markets in France, and a broad comparative book on financial crises and their impact on financial institutions.
- explaining why the West managed to conquer the rest of the world, a subject that mixes economics, politics, and technological change. I have given a Watson lecture on this subject at Caltech, written a recent article on it, and am finishing a book manuscript on it.
- analyzing the long run evolution of prices and living standards in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas over the past millennium, the subject of several papers and a future book.
Most of these projects involve work with other scholars, and in the last one, I am the member of a large international team.
Last updated: November 01, 2011 14:15
