Jared Rubin

Dr. Jared Rubin

Professor; Co-Director, Institute for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Society
Business and Economics, The George L. Argyros College of Business and Economics
Expertise: Economic History and Development; Christianity; Middle East; Institutions; Religion; Islam
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 BA from the University of Virginia in 2002.

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

Rubin, Jared. 2024. “Religion, Political Legitimacy, and Complexity,” in Handbook on Institutions and Complexity (edited by Eric Alston, Lee Alston, and Bernardo Mueller). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming.
Rubin, Jared. 2024. “How Did the World Become Rich?,” in The Annual Proceedings of the Wealth and Well-Being of Nations (edited by Laura Grube). Beloit, WI: Beloit University Press, pp. 59-72.
Rubin, Jared. 2024. “Religion and Institutions,” in Handbook of New Institutional Economics, 2nd edition (edited by Mary Shirley and Claude Menard). New York: Springer: forthcoming.
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.
"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