Deirdre McCloskey

Deirdre McCloskey
McCloskey in 2014
Born	(1942-09-11) September 11, 1942 (age 82) Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
Education	Harvard University (AB, AM, PhD)
Known for	Economic history of Britain McCloskey critique
Scientific career
Fields	Economic history Cliometrics Economic methodology
Thesis	Economic Maturity and Entrepreneurial Decline: British Iron and Steel, 1870–1913 (1970)
Doctoral advisor	Alexander Gerschenkron
Notable students	Stephen T. Ziliak Claudia Goldin
Website	deirdremccloskey.com

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey (born Donald Nansen McCloskey; September 11, 1942) is an American economist and academic. Since 2023 she has been a Distinguished Scholar and holder of the Isaiah Berlin Chair in Liberal Thought at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. From 2000 to 2015, she taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she was Distinguished Professor of Economics History, and Professor of English and Communication.^[1] During those years, she (as a visitor) taught economic history at the University of Gothenburg, economics at the University of the Free State, and philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam.^[1]

McCloskey holds twelve honorary doctorates.^[2] She has served as President of the Social Science History Association, the Midwest Economics Association, and the Economic History Association. Co-founder of the Cliometrics Society, she is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Advanced Study. Her research interests include the economic and political origins of the modern world, the misuse of statistical significance in economics and other sciences, British economic history, the rhetoric of economics, and the history and philosophy of liberalism, among others.