James Robinson is the Reverend Dr Richard L. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies and the Institute Director of Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts at Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago.

His main research interests are in comparative economic and political development with a focus on the long run with a particular interest in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. He was previously the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government at Harvard University and a faculty associate at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He also previously taught in the Department of Economics at University of Melbourne and University of Southern California, the Departments of Economics and Political Science at University of California at Berkeley and the Department of Government at Harvard University. 

He is widely recognised as the co-author of Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, with Daron Acemoglu, the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. His most recent book co-authored with Daron Acemoglu is The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from London School of Economics, a Master's in Economics from University of Warwick, and a PhD in Economics from Yale University.