
Professor Kevin O'Rourke
MA, PhD, FBA, MRIA
Quondam Fellow since 2019
My research lies at the intersection of economic history and international economics. In particular, I’ve done a lot of work on the history of globalization and deglobalization, and am still working on these themes. I’m currently working on interwar trade and trade policy, and am also interested in the relationships between trade and war. Other current projects include a history of economic growth in the 20th century, and quantifying the importance of coal during the industrial revolution.
- University Academic Fellow and Chichele Professor of Economic History, All Souls College (from 2011 to 2019)
- Professor of Economics, Trinity College Dublin (from 2000 to 2011)
- College Lecturer (until 1997) then Statutory Lecturer, Department of Economics, University College Dublin (from 1992 to 2000)
- Assistant Professor, Columbia University (from 1989 to 1992)
- Postgraduate, Harvard University (from 1984 to 1989)
- Undergraduate, Trinity College Dublin (from 1980 to 1984)
- Economic history
- International economics
- (with Jeffrey G. Williamson, eds.), The Spread of Modern Industry to the Periphery Since 1870, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
- (with Stephen Broadberry, eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Europe, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
- (with Timothy J. Hatton and Alan M. Taylor, eds.), The New Comparative Economic History: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey G. Williamson (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007).
- (with Ronald Findlay) Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007).
- (with Jeffrey G. Williamson), Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth Century Atlantic Economy (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999).
- Publications (External Link)
- Economics Delegate, Oxford University Press (from 2016)
- Senior Editor, Economic Policy (from 2015)
- Member, Council, Royal Economic Society (from 2015 to 2020)
- International Advisory Board member, Scandinavian Economic History Review (from 2015)
- Research Director, Centre for Economic Policy Research (from 2014)
- Programme Director, Economic History Programme, Centre for Economic Policy Research (from 2012 to 2013)
- Trustee, Cliometric Society (from 2013)
- Trustee, European Historical Economic Society (2013-2016, and from 1996-2006)
- Member, Comité scientifique, Autorité de Contrôle prudentiel et de resolution, Banque de France (from 2013 to 2016)
- Member, Scientific Council, Bruegel (from 2012)
- President, European Historical Economics Society (from 2009 to 2011)
- Vice President, Economic History Association (from 2011 to 2012)
- Editor, European Review of Economic History (from 2003 to 2007)
- Editorial Board Member, Economic History Review
- Editorial Board Member, Oxford Economic Papers
- Editorial Board Member, World Politics (from 2007 to 2013)
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of Economic History (from 1998 to 2001)
- Series Editor, People, Markets, Goods: Economies and Societies in History (Boydell and Brewer)
- Associate Member, Nuffield College (from 2012)
- Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
- Research Associate, IIIS, Trinity College Dublin
- ERC Advanced Investigator Grant to work on 'Trade and the Great Depression in a Long Run Perspective' (from 2010 to 2015).
- Collaborative Research Project HI-POD: Historical Patterns of Development and Underdevelopment: Origins and Persistence of the Great Divergence (from 2008 to 2012).
- Globalization and Growth: Lessons from British Trade Statistics, NSF Award SES-0851158 (with David Jacks, Simon Fraser, and Alan M. Taylor, UC Davis).
- Co-ordinator (with Stephen Broadberry) of Research Training Network Proposal FP6- 512439, Unifying the European Experience: Historical Lessons of Pan-European Development.
- IRCHSS Government of Ireland Senior Research Fellowship (also in 2003-4) (from 2007 to 2008).
- Association of American Publishers/PSP Award for best new scholarly book in Economics, 1999 (from 1999).
- Cole Prize Winner (from 1998).