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Douglas Gollin
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Prof Douglas Gollin

Professor of Development Economics

Douglas Gollin is Professor of Development Economics at Oxford University, based in the Oxford Department of International Development. His research focuses broadly on economic development and growth, with an emphasis on the structural transformations that accompany the growth process. He has particular interests in agricultural productivity and technology, from a micro scale to macro scale. His work has also looked at rural-urban mobility and urbanisation processes, spatial patterns of development and a range of other topics.

Professor Gollin joined Oxford in October 2012 after spending 16 years on the faculty of Williams College in the United States. He currently serves as Research Director for a major global programme of academic research on Structural Transformation and Economic Growth (STEG), funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. Professor Gollin is a managing editor of the Journal of African Economies. From 2012-17, he chaired the Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) of the CGIAR and served on the CGIAR Independent Science and Partnership Council. He has also served on the Research Advisory Group for the former UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Professor Gollin holds an AB degree from Harvard University and an MA in international relations from Yale University. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Minnesota in 1996.

He has published in numerous academic journals including Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Science, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, and American Journal of Agricultural Economics. He is a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD).

Research
Teaching & Supervision
Publications
News
In the media
Structural transformation and economic Growth (STEG)
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Teaching

Doug Gollin teaches on the MSc in Economics for Development and the MPhil in Development Studies.

Doctoral supervision

Doug supervises broadly on areas related to agricultural development, structural transformation, and economic growth. His supervisees use a range of quantitative methods and mixed methods; he is especially interested in work that uses micro data to address macro questions. He welcomes applications from prospective students whose work is firmly grounded in macro/growth economics, contemporary development economics, or development studies. He looks for proposals that show careful thought about concepts and measurement (as opposed to those that use data without close examination of the underlying and embedded assumptions).

He does not generally supervise doctoral research involving large-scale global models, country development strategies, fiscal/monetary policy, cross-country regression analyses, or local case studies.

Research Students supervised

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Diala Al Masri
Research Student
Binta Zahra Diop
Economics Department
Lisa Martin
Economics Department
Courtney Blair

Journal articles and special issues
Gollin, Douglas (with Casper Worm Hansen and Asger Moll Wingender) (2021) 'Two Blades of Grass: The Long-Term Economic Impacts of the Green Revolution', Journal of Political Economy 129 (8)
Gollin, Douglas (with Martina Kirchberger and David Lagakos) (2021) 'Do Urban Wage Premia Reflect Lower Amenities? Evidence from Africa', Journal of Urban Economics 121
Gollin, Douglas (2021) 'Heterogeneity, Measurement Error, and Misallocation: Evidence from African Agriculture', Journal of Political Economy 129 (1) 1-80
Gollin, Douglas (2020) 'Conserving Genetic Resources for Agriculture: Economic Implications of Emerging Science', Food Security 12 919–927
Gollin, Douglas (with C Adam, David Bevan) (2018) 'Rural–Urban Linkages, Public Investment and Transport Costs: The Case of Tanzania', World Development 109 497-510
Gollin, Douglas (with Rémi Jedwab, Dietrich Vollrath) (2016) 'Urbanization with and without Industrialization', Journal of Economic Growth 21 35-70
Gollin, Douglas (with C Adam, David Bevan) (2016) 'Rural-Urban Linkages, Transport Costs and Public Investment: The Case of Tanzania', World Development
Gollin, Douglas (with Lilli Probst) (2015) 'Food and agriculture: shifting landscapes for policy', Oxford Review of Economic Policy 31 (1) 8-25
Gollin, Douglas (with David Lagakos and Michael Waugh) (2014) 'Agricultural Productivity Differences across Countries', American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 104 (5) 165-70
Gollin, Douglas (with R Rogerson) (2014) 'Productivity, Transport Costs and Subsistence Agriculture', Journal of Development Economics 107 38-48
Gollin, Douglas (2014) 'The Lewis Model: A Sixty-Year Retrospective', Journal of Economic Perspectives 28 (3) 71-88
Gollin, Douglas (with David Lagakos and Michael E Waugh) (2014) 'The Agricultural Productivity Gap', Quarterly Journal of Economics 129 (2) 939-93
Gollin, Douglas (with S Dercon) (2014) 'Agriculture in African Development: Theories and Strategies', Annual Review of Resource Economics 6
Gollin, Douglas (2013) 'Equipping immigrants: migration flows and capital movements in small open economies', Review of World Economics 149 (4) 749-77
Gollin, Douglas (with Christian Zimmermann) (2012) 'Global Climate Change and the Resurgence of Tropical Disease: An Economic Approach', Mathematical Population Studies 19(1) 51-62
Gollin, Douglas (with Eric Van Dusen, Harvey Blackburn) (2009) 'Animal Genetic Resource Trade Flows: Economic Assessment', Livestock Science 120 248-55
Gollin, Douglas (with Harvey Blackburn) (2009) 'Animal Genetic Resource Trade Flows: The Utilization of Newly Imported Breeds and the Gene Flow of Individual Animals in the United States of America', Livestock Science 120 240-47
Gollin, Douglas (2008) 'Nobody's Business but My Own: Self Employment and Small Enterprise in Economic Development', Journal of Monetary Economics 55(2) 219-33

Chapters
Gollin, Douglas (2010) 'Agricultural Productivity and Economic Growth'. In Prabhu Pingali, Robert Evenson (eds) Handbook of Agricultural Economics Volume 4 , Elsevier
30 January, 2021
New article co-authored by Douglas Gollin explores differences in productivity across farms in Africa
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28 May, 2020
Douglas Gollin to co-lead new DFID-funded initiative for research to underpin development policy in low- and middle-income countries
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12 October, 2018
Douglas Gollin gives keynote at 20th annual BIOECON conference
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26 April, 2018
Douglas Gollin speaks at World Bank Agriculture Policies Community of Practice
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02 March, 2018
New research programme to explore African governance
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19 September, 2016
New World Development paper co-authored by Christopher Adam, Douglas Gollin explores public investment in Tanzania
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20 Mar, 2021
'When agriculture drives development: Lessons from the Green Revolution'. Douglas Gollin and co-authors write for VoxEU
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27 Sep, 2019
'Better seeds could help African farmers grow far more'. The Economist cites research on high-yielding crops by Douglas Gollin and co-authors
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23 Mar, 2016
'Urbanisation in developing countries: a completely different kettle of fish'. Douglas Gollin and colleagues write in The Conversation
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Research interests:

Agriculture; economic growth; structural transformation; transportation costs; agricultural technology; agricultural research; technological change.

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