Philip T. Hoffman
Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of Business Economics and History, Emeritus
Profile
Philip T. Hoffman combines economic theory and historical evidence to explain long-term changes in politics, society, and the economy—in particular, economic growth and political development. He has worked on why the West grew rich before other parts of the world, why it became a dominant military power, how financial and political institutions develop, and how to establish causality with historical data.
Hoffman was president of the Economic History Association in 2013–2014 and president of the Social Science History Association in 2019-2020. He has been a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in France, a visiting researcher at the Paris School of Economics (2011), and a visiting professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2013). In addition to numerous articles, he has written six books, edited two, and won numerous prizes for his publications.
- Economic History Association Fellow, 2019
- Cliometric Society Fellow, 2013
- John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, 2001
- John Addison Porter Prize, Yale University, 1980
Selected Publications
Books
Dark Matter Credit: The Development of Peer-to-Peer Lending and Banking in France
Princeton University Press, 2019
Interview published by Caltech magazine
Book Review
Why Did Europe Conquer the World?
Princeton University Press, 2015
Interview published by Princeton University Press
Book Review
Korean Educational TV Documentary, January 2022
Growth in a Traditional Society
Princeton University Press, 1996
Gyorgy Ranki Prize, Economic History Association, 1997
Allan Sharlin Prize, Social Science History Association, 1997
Articles
- Hoffman, Philip T. (2015) What Do States Do? Politics and Economic History. Journal of Economic History, 75 (2). pp. 303-332. ISSN 0022-0507. Download
- Hoffman, Philip T. and Postel-Vinay, Gilles and Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent (2015) Entry, information, and financial development: A century of competition between French banks and notaries. Explorations in Economic History, 55 . pp. 39-57. ISSN 0014-4983. Download
- Hoffman, Philip T. (2012) Why Was It Europeans Who Conquered the World? Journal of Economic History, 72 (3). pp. 601-633. ISSN 0022-0507. Download
- Hoffman, Philip T. (2011) Prices, the military revolution, and western Europe's comparative advantage in violence. Economic History Review, 64 (S1). pp. 39-59. ISSN 0013-0117. Download
Working Papers
Click here to view Professor Hoffman's working papers.