Dr. Jared Rubin

Dr. Jared Rubin

Professor, Co-Director, Institute for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Society
The George L. Argyros College of Business and Economics
Expertise: Economic History and Development; Christianity; Middle East; Institutions; Religion; Islam;
Phone: (714) 516-4530
Website: http://www.jaredcrubin.com/
Scholarly Works:
Digital Commons
Education:
The University of Virginia, Bachelor of Arts
Stanford University, Ph.D.

Biography

Jared Rubin is an economic historian interested in the political and religious economies of the Middle East and Western Europe. His research focuses on historical relationships between political and religious institutions and their role in economic development. His book, Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not (Cambridge University Press, 2017) explores the role that Islam and Christianity played in the long-run “reversal of fortunes” between the economies of the Middle East and Western Europe. It was awarded the Douglass North Best Book Award for the best research in institutional and organizational economics published during the previous two years, awarded by the Society of Institutional and Organizational Economics. Rubin’s work has appeared in journals such as Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economics & Statistics, Economic Journal, Management Science and many others. He is the Co-Director of Chapman University’s Institute for the Study of Religion, Economics and Society (IRES) and the President of the Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture (ASREC). He serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Economic History, Journal of Comparative Economics, Explorations in Economic History and Essays in Economic and Business History. He has been awarded over $1 million in grants from the John Templeton Foundation for his work in the economics of religion. He graduated with a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 2007 and a B.A. from the University of Virginia in 2002.

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

Jenkins, Jeffery A., and Jared Rubin. 2023. “Historical Political Economy: What Is It?” in The Oxford Handbook of Historical Political Economy (edited by Jeffery A. Jenkins and Jared Rubin). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 1-14.
Greif, Avner, and Jared Rubin. 2023. “Political Legitimacy in Historical Political Economy,” in The Oxford Handbook of Historical Political Economy (edited by Jeffery A. Jenkins and Jared Rubin). New York: Oxford University Press, p. 293-310.
Rubin, Jared. 2023. “Religion and Cliometric Analysis,” in Handbook of Cliometrics, 3rd edition (edited by Claude Diebolt and Michael Haupert). New York: Springer Nature.
Jenkins, Jeffery A., and Jared Rubin (eds.). 2023. The Oxford Handbook of Historical Political Economy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Carvalho, Jean-Paul, Jared Rubin, and Michael Sacks. 2023. “Failed Secular Revolutions: Religious Belief, Competition, and Extremism.” Public Choice, forthcoming.
Bisin, Alberto, Jared Rubin, Avner Seror, and Thierry Verdier. 2023. “Culture, Institutions, and the Long Divergence.” Journal of Economic Growth, forthcoming.
Koyama, Mark, and Jared Rubin. 2022. How the World Became Rich: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Rubin, Jared. 2022. “Religious Legitimacy and Long Run Economic Growth in the Middle East,” in: Oxford Handbook on Politics of Muslim Societies (edited by Melani Cammett and Pauline Jones). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 619-636.
Rubin, Jared. 2022. “Review of Jonathan Lawrence, Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Modern State.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 54(1): 191-193.
Rubin, Jared. 2022. “Review of Benjamin M. Friedman, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.” Journal of Economic Literature 60(2): 650-652.
Karaja, Elira, and Jared Rubin. 2022. “The Cultural Transmission of Trust Norms: Evidence from a Lab in the Field on a Natural Experiment.” Journal of Comparative Economics 50(1): 1-19.
Rubin, Jared. 2021. “Religion and Politics: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not.” in: Routledge Handbook on Middle East Economy (edited by Hassan Hakimian). New York: Routledge, p. 265-274.
Becker, Sascha O., Jared Rubin, and Ludger Woessmann. 2021. “Religion in Economic History: A Survey” in Handbook of Historical Economics (edited by Alberto Bisin and Giovanni Federico). London: Elsevier, p. 585-639.
Iyigun, Murat, Jared Rubin, and Avner Seror. 2021. “A Theory of Cultural Revivals.” European Economic Review 135(103734).
Boerner, Lars, Jared Rubin, and Battista Severgnini. 2021. “A Time to Print, A Time to Reform.” European Economic Review 138(103826).
Rubin, Jared. 2020. “Review of Ahmet Kuru, Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison.” EH.Net Economic History Services.
Rubin, Jared. 2020. “Introduction to the Special Issue on the Economics of Religion.” Journal of Demographic Economics 86(3): 207-211..
Chaudhary, Latika, Jared Rubin, Sriya Iyer, and Anand Shrivastava. 2020. “Culture and Colonial Legacy: Evidence from Public Goods Games.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 173: 107-129.
Becker, Sascha O., Yuan Hsiao, Steven Pfaff, and Jared Rubin. 2020. “Multiplex Network Ties and the Spatial Diffusion of Radical Innovations: Martin Luther's Leadership in the Early Reformation.” American Sociological Review, 85(5): 857-894.
Editor, special issue on the economics of religion, Journal of Demographic Economics
Rubin, Jared. 2019. “The Political and Economic Consequences of Religious Legitimacy.” in: Advances in the Economics of Religion (edited by Jean-Paul Carvalho, Sriya Iyer, and Jared Rubin). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 311-320.
Carvalho, Jean-Paul, Sriya Iyer, and Jared Rubin. 2019. “Introduction,” in: Advances in the Economics of Religion (edited by Jean-Paul Carvalho, Sriya Iyer, and Jared Rubin). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 1-21.
Carvalho, Jean-Paul, Sriya Iyer, and Jared Rubin (eds.). 2019. Advances in the Economics of Religion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rubin, Jared. 2019. “Review of Noel D. Johnson and Mark Koyama, Persecution & Toleration: The Long Road to Religious Freedom.” EH.Net Economic History Services.
Hajikhameneh, Aidin, and Jared Rubin. 2019. “Exchange in the Absence of Legal Enforcement: Reputation and Multilateral Punishment under Uncertainty.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 35(1): 192-237.
Ma, Debin, and Jared Rubin. 2019. “The Paradox of Power: Principal-Agent Problems and Administrative Capacity in Imperial China (and other Absolutist Regimes).” Journal of Comparative Economics 47(2): 277-294.
Rubin, Jared. 2018. “Islamic Law and Economic Development.” in: Research Handbook on the History of Corporate Law (edited by Harwell Wells). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 17-32.
Rubin, Jared. 2018. “Global Divergence and Economic Change.” in: An Economist’s Guide to Economic History (edited by Matthias Blum and Chris Colvin). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 193-200.
Rubin, Jared. 2018. “Review of Bas van Bavel, The Invisible Hand? How Market Economies Have Emerged and Declined since AD 500.” EH.Net Economic History Services.
Rubin, Jared. 2018. “Review of Jean-Philippe Platteau, Islam Instrumentalized: Religion and Politics in Historical Perspective.” Journal of Economic Literature 56(4): 1601-1603.
Rubin, Jared, Anya Samek, and Roman Sheremeta. 2018. “Loss Aversion and the Quantity-Quality Trade-off.” Experimental Economics 21(2): 292-315.
Kuran, Timur, and Jared Rubin. 2018. “The Financial Power of the Powerless: Socio-Economic Status and Interest Rates under Partial Rule of Law.” Economic Journal 128(609): 758-796.
Kuran, Timur, and Jared Rubin. “The Financial Power of the Powerless,” VoxEU, April 28, 2018.
Rubin, Jared. 2017. Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Becker, Sascha O., and Jared Rubin. 2017. “The Protestant Reformation’s Impact in Europe.” in: The Long Economic Shadow of History (edited by Stelios Michalopoulos and Elias Papaioannou). VOX E-book, p. 63-70.
Rubin, Jared. 2017. “Review of Metin Cosgel and Bogaç Ergene, The Economics of Ottoman Justice: Settlement and Trial in the Sharia Courts.” EH.Net Economic History Services.
Rubin, Jared. "Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not," Cambridge University Press 1584 Blog, May 25, 2017.
Rubin, Jared. 2016. “Review of Murat Iyigun, War, Peace, and Prosperity in the Name of God.” Journal of Economic History 76(3): p. 953-954.
Rubin, Jared, and Roman Sheremeta. 2016. “Principal-Agent Settings with Random Shocks.” Management Science 62(4): 985-999.
Chaudhary, Latika, and Jared Rubin. 2016. “Religious Identity and the Provision of Public Goods: Evidence from the Indian Princely States.” Journal of Comparative Economics 44(3): 461-483.
Becker, Sascha O., Steven Pfaff, and Jared Rubin. 2016. “Causes and Consequences of the Protestant Reformation.” Explorations in Economic History 62: 1-25.
Rubin, Jared. 2015. “Bills of Exchange, Financial Networks, and Quasi-Impersonal Exchange in Western Europe and the Middle East.” in: Union in Separation - Diasporic Groups and Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean (1100-1800) (edited by Georg Christ, Franz-Julius Morche, Roberto Zaugg, Wolfgang Kaiser, Stefan Burkhardt, and Alexander D. Beihammer). Rome: Viella, p. 545-553.
Rubin, Jared. 2015. “Review of Murat Iyigun, War, Peace, and Prosperity in the Name of God.” EH.Net Economic History Services.
Kimbrough, Erik, Jared Rubin, Roman Sheremeta, and Timothy Shields. 2015. “Commitment Problems in Conflict Resolution.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 112: 33-45.
Kimbrough, Erik, and Jared Rubin. 2015. “Sustaining Group Reputation.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 31(3): 599-628.
Rubin, Jared. 2014. “Islamic Institutions and Underdevelopment.” in: Handbook on Islam and Economic Life (edited by M. Kabir Hassan and Mervyn K. Lewis). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 593-609.
Rubin, Jared. 2014. “Centralized Institutions and Cascades.” Journal of Comparative Economics 42(2): 340-357.
Rubin, Jared. 2014. “Printing and Protestants: An Empirical Test of the Role of Printing in the Reformation.” Review of Economics and Statistics 96(2): 270-286.
“Timur Kuran’s Framework and Economic Underdevelopment in the Islamic World,” in: The Annual Proceedings of the Wealth and Well-Being of Nations (edited by Joshua Hall), Beloit University Press, pp. 85-94
“Endogenous Group Formation via Unproductive Costs” (with Jason A. Aimone, Laurence R. Iannaccone, and Michael D. Makowsky), Review of Economic Studies, 80(4): pp. 1215-1236
“An Agent-Based Model of Centralized Institutions, Social Network Technology, and Revolution” (with Michael D. Makowsky), PLoS ONE 8(11): e80380
“Cooperation through unproductive costs,” with Jason A. Aimone, Laurence R. Iannaccone, and Michael D. Makowsky, OUPblog, July 11, 2013.
“Trade and Commerce,” in: The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought (edited by Gerhard Bowering, Patricia Crone, Wadad Kadi, Devin J. Stuart, and Muhammad Qasim Zaman), Princeton University Press, pp. 552-554
"Political Legitimacy and Technology Adoption" (with Metin M. Cosgel and Thomas J. Miceli), Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 168, no. 3: 339-361
“The Political Economy of Mass Printing: Legitimacy, Revolt, and Technological Change in the Ottoman Empire” (with Metin M. Cosgel and Thomas J. Miceli), Journal of Comparative Economics 40, no. 3: 357-371
“Review of Deirdre McCloskey, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World,” EH.Net Economic History Services, February 23, 2011.
"Reading, Writing, and Religion: Institutions and Human Capital Formation" (with Latika Chaudhary), Journal of Comparative Economics 39, no. 1: 17-33
"Lessons from Delphi: Religious Markets and Spiritual Capitals" (with Laurence R. Iannaccone and Colleen E. Haight), Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 77, no. 3: 326-338
"Institutions, the Rise of Commerce, and the Persistence of Laws: Interest Restrictions in Islam & Christianity" Economic Journal 121, no. 557: 1310-1339.
“Institutions, religion, and the rise of Europe vis-à-vis the Middle East: A long-run reversal of fortunes,” VoxEU, December 22, 2011.
"Bills of Exchange, Interest Bans, and Impersonal Exchange in Islam and Christianity", Explorations in Economic History 47, no. 2: 213-227
"Social Insurance, Commitment, and the Origin of Law: Interest Bans in Early Christianity", Journal of Law & Economics 52, no. 4: 761-777
"The Lender’s Curse: A New Look at the Origin and Persistence of Interest Bans in Islam and Christianity", Dissertation Summary, Journal of Economic History 68, no. 2: 575-579
"Restricting Access to Books on the Internet: Some Unanticipated Effects of U.S. Copyright Legislation" (with Paul A. David), Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues 5, no. 1: 23-53

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