Michael Spagat

Michael Spagat (born c. 1960) is an American–British economist and researcher of war and armed conflict. He is currently a professor of economics at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is also a board member of Every Casualty Counts and Action on Armed Violence.

Biography
At Northwestern University, Spagat had obtained a BA in mathematical methods in the social sciences and economics in 1982. He was awarded a PhD in economics at Harvard University in 1988. He had held two positions as assistant professor of economics, one at University of Illinois from August 1987 to July 1990, and another at Brown University from July 1990 to August 1997, before joining Royal Holloway, University of London in September 1997, where he is still appointed at as of 2024. He is currently a professor of economics at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Research
His current research addresses armed conflict, universal patterns in modern war, fabrication in survey research, the Dirty War Index civilian casualties in the Iraq War and problems in the measurement of war deaths in the Iraq War and the Israel–Hamas war.