Pier Paolo Creanza
Assistant Professor of Economics, Swarthmore College
About ↑
I am an economist working on economic history and innovation.
My research uses original large-scale data collections to study the economics and history of innovation, from the modern corporation to the ancient Mediterranean.
Current projects examine the philanthropic funding of American science, corporate concentration in the early twentieth century, and ancient trade.
I received my Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University in May 2026, where I was affiliated with the Industrial Relations Section. I am now an Assistant Professor of Economics at Swarthmore College and a Visiting Fellow at Penn's Initiative for the Study of Markets (2026–27).
News ↑
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Nov 2026
The deadline to submit to the Junior Economic History Conference—which I co-organize with João Tampellini and Danielle Graves Williamson—is November 30. The conference is endorsed by the EHA.
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Oct 2026
Presented at UCLA's VonGremp Workshop in Economic and Entrepreneurial History mini-conference.
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Sep 2026
Awarded the Economic History Association's Allan Nevins Prize in American Economic History for the best dissertation in U.S. or Canadian economic history, presented at the EHA annual meeting in St. Louis.
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Sep 2026
“Returning brains: Tax incentives, migration, and scientific productivity” is published in the Journal of Public Economics.
Research ↑
Publications
Working Papers
Work in Progress
Teaching ↑
A survey of ten thousand years of economic life from the agricultural revolution to the present. Topics include the origins of farming and cities, living standards before industrialization, the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution, and the making of the modern global economy. The course emphasizes the deep roots of growth, institutions, and inequality.