Professor Woodruff’s research focuses on enterprises in low-income countries, with noted work on returns to capital investments in microenterprises and the effect of formal registration on enterprise performance. He is a pioneer in the use of field experiments in firms.

He currently holds an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council for work measuring productivity in the readymade garment sector, with a particular focus on the challenges women face in moving into supervisory positions in the Bangladeshi garment sector.

Professor Woodruff joins us from the University of Warwick, where he was Professor of Economics.

 'We are delighted to welcome Professor Woodruff as a colleague,' said Head of Department Professor Christopher Adam. 'Chris’ work on the economics of the firm not only sits right on the research frontier but is also concerned with a range of hugely important questions in public policy on how to create and sustain high-quality jobs in low-income countries. This work fits perfectly with the research tradition of the department and the University.'

'It is an honour to become part of an institution which has been at the centre of the international development agenda,' Professor Woodruff said. 'Oxford's long tradition in work on firms in low-income countries makes this a particularly exciting place for me to be.'

Professor Woodruff is the Scientific Coordinator for the DFID-CEPR joint research venture on Private Enterprise Development in Low Income Countries (PEDL) and directs the Firm Capabilities group at the International Growth Centre.

In addition to his position at Oxford, Professor Woodruff is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and a Senior Fellow of the Bureau of Research on Economic Analysis and Development (BREAD), a Research Fellow at the Center for Competitive Advantage and the Global Economy (CAGE) and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). 

He was previously Professor of Economics at UC San Diego, where he also served as Director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies from 2003 to 2008.