Jeffrey G. Williamson

Jeffrey Gale Williamson (26 November 193529 August 2026 ) was the Laird Bell Professor of Economics (Emeritus), Harvard University; an 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 and Policy Research. He also served (1994–1995) as the president of the Economic History Association.

Williamson is considered one of the world's foremost scholars on the economic history of the international economy. His research focused on comparative economic history and the history of the international economy and development. Economist Hilary Williamson Hoynes is his daughter. He passed away in 2026 at the age of 90.

Education and career Williamson was educated at Wesleyan University and Stanford University. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University in 1961. In 1963, he moved to University of Wisconsin and taught there until 1983. That year, he joined the Department of Economics at Harvard University, where he was the Laird Bell Professors of Economics. Furthermore, in 1991 he became a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Additionally, in 1994–95 he was President of the Economic History Association. He also served as a consultant and visiting Research Fellow at the World Bank starting in 1976. 1974, with Allen C. Kelley, Lessons From Japanese Development: An Analytical Economic History. University of Chicago Press. with T. Hatton, 1998, The Age of Mass Migration, Oxford with P. Aghion, 1998, Growth, Inequality, and Globalization, Mattioli Lectures: Cambridge with K. O'Rourke, 1999, Globalization and History, MIT with M. Bordo and A. M. Taylor, 2003, Globalization in Historical Perspective, Chicago and NBER with Timothy J. Hatton, 2005, Global Migration and the World Economy. Two Centuries of Policy and Performance, The MIT Press. 2011, Trade and Poverty: When the Third World Fell Behind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. with Peter H. Lindert, 2016, Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700. Princeton University Press.

Festschrift T.J. Hatton. K. H. O'Rourke and A. M. Taylor (eds.), The New Comparative Economic History: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey G. Williamson, Cambridge Mass: MIT Press, 2007)