Jan de Vries

Professor Jan de Vries is the Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of European History and Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, he served as the first Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Faculty Welfare from 2000 to 2007 there. His research focuses on the economy of Europe in the early modern period, which has led him to investigating the working of markets in pre-industrial Europe with special reference to the emergence of the Dutch economy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Through both microeconomic studies of individual behavior and macroeconomic studies of phenomena such as urbanization he has sought to link the pre-industrial era more closely to its industrial successor. His current work concerns the role of consumer demand in economic development. He is a recipient of the Georgy Ranki Prize twice for his books and the A.H. Heineken Prize for history. From 1991 to 1993 he held the post of president of the Economic History Association, and he was an editor of the Journal of Economic History.