Assistant Professor
Harbour Centre 7276
778.782.8837
mjerven@sfu.ca
http://www.sfu.ca/~mjerven/
Morten Jerven
Education
B.Sc. (Budapest), M.Sc., Ph.D. (LSE)
Areas of Interest
• Africa
• Economic History
• Economic Growth and Development
Research and Teaching
Professor Jerven’s doctoral research involved field research in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia culminating in a work on the post-colonial economic performance of these countries. The work is particularly innovative in investigating the construction of African growth data and how data quality issues are important to evaluation of economic performance.
Currently Morten Jerven is working on linking the work on post-colonial economic development with the economic history of colonial Africa. He is also doing work on the comparative economic history of developing countries reconsidering the larger narratives of the historical roots of poverty. His main research projects are focusing on the African growth data where the two related aims are to assess its quality and to construct a reliable basis to evaluate and interpret long term economic change in African economies.
Courses Taught
IS 101, IS 429, IS 802, IS 829
Selected Publications
“The Quest for the African Dummy: Explaining African Post-Colonial Economic Performance Revisited”, Journal of International Development. 20 pp. Published online: 30 June 2009.
“The Relativity of Poverty and Income: How Reliable Are African Economic Statistics?”, African Affairs, Vol. 109:434, 2010, pp. 77–96.
“Random Growth in Africa? Lessons from an Evaluation of the Growth Evidence on Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, 1965–1995”, Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 46:2, 2010, pp. 274–294.
“Accounting for the African Growth Miracle: The official Evidence, Botswana 1965–1995”, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 36:1, 2010.
Grants and Awards
• 2010-2013: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, Standard Research Grant, ‘Measuring African progress: validity and reliability of African statistics and the study of African long tern development’
• 2009-10 Endowed Research Fellowship (SFU)