Giacomo Benati

"But nobody can be a great economist who is only an economist—and I am even tempted to add that the economist who is only an economist is likely to become a nuisance if not a positive danger." 

F. A. Hayek "The Dilemma of Specialization", Chicago, 1956

I am a Ramon y Cajal (tenure-track) researcher at the Department of Economic History, Institutions, Politics and World Economy of the University of Barcelona (UB). I teach in the MIPE program and I am a local coordinator for the Erasmus Mundus GLOCAL joint master. I am also one of the founders of the ORIGINS project, and an associate editor for the series Cambridge Elements in Law, Economics and Politics.  

My approach is strongly interdisciplinary: I combine ancient world studies with quantitative methods to analyze the origins and long-run evolution of key social phenomena, such as political institutions, inequality, violence, standards of living, trade and markets. 

I have published in top multidisciplinary outlets (PNAS, NHB), international journals in archaeology (JAS, JARe, QSR), and economics (EHR, JCE, JLEO).