Eric Lionel Jones

Eric Lionel Jones (21 September 1936 – 1 March 2024) was a British-Australian economist and historian, known for his 1981 book The European Miracle.

Jones received a doctorate in economic history from the University of Oxford. From 1970 to 1975, he was professor of economics at Northwestern University in the United States. From 1975 to 1994, he was a professor of economics and economics history at La Trobe University, in Australia. Jones has also had visiting appointments at Yale University, the University of Manchester, Princeton University, the Humboldt University of Berlin, and the Center for Economic Studies at LMU Munich.

As of the early 2000s, he was the Emeritus Professor of Economic Systems and Ideas at La Trobe University, and he held a half-time Professorial Fellow position at the Melbourne Business School of the University of Melbourne in Australia and the part-time Professor of Economics position at the Graduate Center of International Business of the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

Jones has also acted as a consultant for businesses and international organizations such as the World Bank.

Eric Lionel Jones died on 1 March 2024 aged 87.

Work Eric Jones specialized in economic history, global economics, international affairs and economic systems, particularly in those of the Asian-Pacific region.

In Growth Recurring (1988) Jones focused on the states system theory as the decisive factor in the development of the West.