Professor

Bob MargoPhD, Harvard University

Fields: Economic History, Labor Economics

Contact Info:
270 Bay State Road, Room 311
Boston, MA 02215
(617) 353-6819
margora@bu.edu

Curriculum Vita Biographical Sketch Current Working Papers Selected Recent Publications
Biographical Sketch

Robert A. Margo is Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, at Boston University; and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1982. From 1981 to 1986 he taught at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1987 he moved to Colgate University where he held the Banfi Vintners’ Distinguished Professorship in American Economic History. From 1989 to 2005 he taught at Vanderbilt University. Margo has been a visiting professor at Harvard University and at Bard College, and a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. A specialist in the history of the American economy with particular emphasis on the economic history of African-Americans, Margo is the author, co-author or co-editor of 6 books and 170+ articles, book chapters and book reviews. He has served on the editorial boards of many journals, including the Journal of Economic History, the American Economic Review, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics; and he has served as editor or co-editor of the Southern Economic Journal and of Explorations in Economic History. Margo was elected a Fellow of the Cliometric Society in 2012 and he served as President of the Economic History Association in 2014-15. In 2018 he received the Provost’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award, one of Boston University’s highest honors, and in 2019 he was named a Fellow of the Economic History Association.

Margo is an accomplished performer on mandolin-family instruments, classical guitar, and renaissance lute. He performs regularly with the Hampton Trio and the Providence (Rhode Island) Mandolin Orchestra.

Current Working Papers
“Wage Inequality in US Manufacturing, 1820 – 1940: New Evidence” (with J. Atack, and P. Rhode), March 2023.
Selected Recent Publications
 

“Industrialization and Urbanization in Nineteenth Century America,” (with J. Atack and P. Rhode), Regional Science and Urban Economics 94 (May 2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2021.103678.

“’Mechanization Takes Command?’ Powered Machinery and Production Times in Late Nineteenth Century American Manufacturing,” (with J. Atack and P. Rhode), Journal of Economic History (September 2022): 663-689, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050722000146.

“JUE Insight: Condominium Development Does Not Lead to Gentrification,” (with others), Journal of Urban Economics (in press), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2022.103524.