Bob Allen (economic historian)

Robert Carson Allen (born 10 January 1947 in Salem, Massachusetts) is Professor of Economic History at New York University Abu Dhabi. His research interests are economic history, technological change and public policy and he has written extensively on English agricultural history. He has also studied international competition in the steel industry, the extinction of Bowhead Whales in the Eastern Arctic, and contemporary policies on education.

He obtained his B.A. at Carleton College, Minnesota in 1969 and his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1975. He has been a professor since 1973, first at Hamilton College then from 1975 in the Department of Economics of the University of British Columbia. Since 2000 he has been associated with the University of Oxford, and from 2002 has been Professor of Economic History and a fellow of Nuffield College.

Bob Allen retired from Oxford University in 2013. He is now Global Distinguished Professor of Economic History at New York University, Abu Dhabi.

He has been awarded the Ranki Prize of the Economic History Association for his 1992 and 2003 works (see below).

Books

 * 1992: Enclosure and the Yeoman: The Agricultural Development of the South Midlands, 1450-1850
 * 2003: Farm to Factory: A Re-interpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution
 * 2007: Engels' Pause: A Pessimist`s Guide to the British Industrial Revolution, Economics Series Working Papers 315, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
 * 2009: The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective
 * 2011: Global economic history: a very short introduction
 * 2017: The Industrial Revolution: a very short introduction