51²è¹Ýapp

Bill Ferguson is the Gertrude B. Austin Professor of Economics at 51²è¹Ýapp College, where he has taught since 1989. He is the author of (Stanford University Press, 2020) and (Stanford University Press, 2013). Both books advance the proposition that successful development requires resolving underlying collective-action problems. The earlier book begins with micro-level foundations of political economy and ends with macro-level attention to knowledge, distributions of power, institutions, and growth. The latter book extends these macro themes by focusing on how distributions of power shape configurations of institutions and associated types of collective-action problems that condition prospects for achieving functional political and economic development. Continuing that theme, he is also a coauthor of (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Professor Ferguson is past Secretary-Treasurer of the Midwest Economics Association and prior chair and founder of 51²è¹Ýapp’s Policy Studies Concentration. After graduating from 51²è¹Ýapp College in 1975, with a B.A. in history, he worked as a neighborhood community organizer in Seattle Washington until 1982, when he shifted to studying economics, receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1989. His teaching has ranged from institutional political economy, applied game theory, and policy analysis to labor economics, British economic policy, and climate policy. His early publications focused on the wage-productivity gap in the US economy and modeling implicit bargaining power in employment relationships. After 2008, he shifted to institutional political economy and development. While writing his 2013 book, he visited Indiana University’s Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, where he discussed his 2013 book manuscript with the late Elinor Ostrom.