Thor Berger

Pro Futura Scientia Fellow, SCAS.
Associate Professor, Department of Economic History, Lund University.
Research Affiliate, Economic History Programme, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), London

Thor Berger obtained his PhD in Economic History at Lund University in 2017. Berger’s dissertation
was awarded several prizes, including the European Historical Economics Society’s Gino Luzzatto Prize.
Before becoming a recipient of the Pro Futura Scientia Fellowship, Berger was a Wallander Postdoctoral
Fellow at Lund University, Associate Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, a British Academy International
Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, and a researcher at the Research Institute of Industrial Econo-
mics, Stockholm, and he has spent time as a Visiting Fellow at the International Institute of Economic
Studies (IIES), Stockholm University, and Nuffield College, University of Oxford. 

Berger’s research uses historical “big data” and quantitative techniques to answer questions that straddle
the intersection of economics, history, and sociology. In particular, his work has analyzed the extent to
which economic and social (dis)advantages are transmitted across generations, the causes and consequences
of innovation, and how technological change affects individuals, firms, and communities. Berger’s research
has been published in leading international journals such as Demography, PNAS, The Journal of Economic
History, and The Review of Economics and Statistics. 

As a Pro Futura Scientia Fellow, Berger will study how intergenerational mobility has evolved in Europe and
the United States over the past two centuries. In particular, he will focus on the historical origins of spatial
disparities in opportunity and examine whether periods of technological upheaval have led to increased
opportunities for upward mobility, or have contributed to perpetuating inequalities across generations. 


Thor Berger is in residence at the Collegium in the academic year 2023-24.
This information is accurate as of the academic year 2023-24.