Jeffrey Williamson

Biography

Jeffrey Gale Williamson served as Chairman of the Economics Department 1997-2000 and as the department's Director of Undergraduate Studies 2001-2002 and 2004-2005. He is now the Laird Bell Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Honorary Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin (Madison), Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Research Fellow for the Center for Economic Policy Research. He was Master of Harvard's Mather House from 1986 to 1993 and twice-recipient of the Galbraith Prize for the best teacher in Harvard's graduate economics program. In addition, he is past-President of the Economic History Association (1994-1995), from whom he received the Hughes Prize for outstanding teaching in 2000.

Having retired from Harvard in July 2008, Professor Williamson no longer teaches, but continues to do research on economic history and the contemporary Third World. Some topics he has explored recently include: the growth and distributional implications of the demographic transition in Asia 1950-2025 and the Atlantic economy 1820-1940; the impact of international migration, capital flows and trade on factor price convergence in the greater Atlantic economy since 1830; the sources of globalization backlash before World War I; the causes of the cessation of convergence during the de-globalization years between 1914 and 1950; a detailed analysis of both the sources and consequences of the mass migrations prior to the 1920s and after the 1950s; the economic implications of 1492. His two new research topics are: A project establishing a data base and then the exploration of the evolution of world factor prices and living standards since 1820, involving the collection and analysis of factor and commodity price data covering the OECD, eastern Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, Latin America, and Asia. The second new project explores economic change in the Third World since 1750, including debates over terms of trade, tariff policy, factor supply, de-industrialization, re-industrializaton, South-South mass migration, and the underlying economic-demographic fundamentals of growth.

Born and raised a New Englander, Professor Williamson is married to Nancy, the father of four children and the very attentive grandfather of five. Upon retirement, he returned to Madison, Wisconsin (where he taught at the University of Wisconsin from 1963-1983 before moving to Harvard in 1983). In the summer, he chops firewood, swims, sails and builds woodland trails at his Maine cottage until the northern New England freeze sets in.