DOUGLASS C. NORTH

An American economist and winner of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, along with Robert William Fogel, for his application of economic theory and quantitative methods to economic history. His research focuses on how institutions affect economic development.

Born in 1920 in Massachusetts, North earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Douglass North's positions have included work as a senior fellow with Stanford University’s free-market think tank, the Hoover Institution. Prior to becoming an economist, he served as a navigator in the Merchant Marines. North has taught economics and history at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Washington at Seattle.