Charles I. Jones

Jones's major contributions include: (1) Showing that first-generation endogenous growth models made predictions that were overwhelmingly contradicted by the data, and developing "semi-endogenous" growth models as an alternative; (2) Pioneering the "accounting" approach to cross-country income differences, and fundamentally changing our understanding of those differences; (3) Developing innovative approaches to measuring the social rate of return to R&D and whether R&D is becoming more difficult over time; (4) Demonstrating the central role of ideas and increasing returns in long-run growth; (5) Contributing to numerous other subjects related to long-run growth, such as life expectancy, fertility, and racial and gender discrimination.