Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke, (born 25 March 1963) is an Irish economist and historian, who specialises in

economic history Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the Applied economics ...

and

international economics International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity from international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns an ...

. Since 2019, he has been Professor of Economics at

New York University Abu Dhabi New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD, ) is a degree-granting portal campus of New York University, established as a private liberal arts college in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Together with the main sites in New York and Shanghai, the por ...

. He was Professor of Economics at

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

from 2000 to 2011, and had previously taught at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and

University College, Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

. From 2011 to 2019, he was Chichele Professor of Economic History at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

Early life and education

O'Rourke was born on 25 March 1963 in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. His father, Andrew O'Rourke, was a senior Irish diplomat who had served as ambassador to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

among others. From 1980 to 1984, he studied economics and maths at

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

, and was elected a Scholar of the college in 1982. He graduated in 1984 with a

first class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree; as per tradition, his BA was later promoted to a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA Dubl) degree. From 1984 to 1989, he attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he undertook

postgraduate studies Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...

in economics. He was awarded a Master of Arts (AM) degree in June 1986 and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in June 1989. His dissertation was titled "Agricultural Change and Rural Depopulation: Ireland 1845–76". Using

computable general equilibrium Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are a class of economic models that use actual economic data to estimate how an economy might react to changes in policy, technology or other external factors. CGE models are also referred to as AGE ( app ...

techniques, and detailed statistics on the Irish economy collected by the UK administration, he challenged the hypothesis that Ireland's Great Famine was merely an inevitable acceleration of existing trends. His work showed that rural depopulation was not linked to relative price changes for agricultural goods, rather that it was driven by a (sudden, Famine-induced) change in the structure of the agricultural industry, in particular the use of

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

as an input, as well as greater opportunities for Irish labourers abroad, in particular in the US, due to the again-sudden existence of emigrant networks and information flows back to Ireland.

Academic career

From 1989 to 1992, O'Rourke was an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Business,

. In 1992, he moved to

as a college lecturer in its Department of Economics. He was promoted to statutory lecturer in 1997. For the spring of 1999, he was a visiting

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

in the Department of Economics,

. During this time, O'Rourke established himself as one of the leading scholars on nineteenth-century

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

, together with Jeffrey Williamson, his former PhD advisor. Their book 'Globalization and History' won the Economics category of the APA 1999 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition. In 2000, he moved to

where he was appointed

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Economics. In Spring 2005, he was a visiting professor to ''

Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

'' (Sciences Po). During his time at Trinity, he expanded his research on international trade, culminating in 'Power & Plenty', a history of the world economy in the second millennium. Later in the decade, as the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

struck, O'Rourke became interested in the parallels between it and the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Posts at popular economics blog VoxEU by O'Rourke and

Barry Eichengreen Barry Julian Eichengreen (born 1952) is an American economist and economic historian who is the George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught sin ...

on the topic remain the most popular articles ever published on the site. From 2009 to 2011, O'Rourke was the President of the European Historical Economics Society, a

learned society A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...

of European economic historians. He has also served as editor of the organization's publication, the '' European Review of Economic History''. He has also served as editor for other

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journals An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the dissemination, scr ...

, including the ''

Journal of Economic History ''The Journal of Economic History'' is an academic journal of economic history which has been published since 1941. Many of its articles are quantitative, often following the formal approaches that have been called ''cliometrics'' or the '' new ...

'', ''

World Politics The terms "world politics" or "global politics" may refer to: *Geopolitics, the study of the effects of geography on politics and International Relations (IR) *Global politics Global politics, also known as world politics, names both the disciplin ...

'', and ''Oxford Economic Papers''. In 2011, O'Rourke joined the

as Chichele Professor of Economic History. With this appointment, he was also elected a University Academic Fellow of

. In January 2014, he additionally became research director of the

Centre for Economic Policy Research The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) is an independent, non-partisan, pan-European non-profit organisation. It aims to enhance the quality of policy decisions through providing policy-relevant research, based soundly in economic schola ...

(CEPR), a European charity. In 2019, he left Oxford and moved to the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

where he joined

as Professor of Economics.

Honours

In 2009, O'Rourke was elected

Member of the Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier learned society and one of its leading cultural and academic insti ...

(MRIA), an all-Ireland learned society. In 2013, he was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Selected works

* * * *O'Rourke, Kevin H. 2019. A Short History of Brexit. Penguin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ORourke, Kevin 1963 births Living people Academics of Trinity College Dublin Academics of University College Dublin Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Chichele Professors of Economic History Columbia Business School faculty Irish economic historians Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Harvard University alumni 20th-century Irish economists 20th-century Irish historians 21st-century Irish historians Members of the Royal Irish Academy Scholars of Trinity College Dublin Academic staff of New York University Abu Dhabi 21st-century Irish economists