James Robinson is professor of government at Harvard University and a faculty associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Robinson studied economics at the London School of Economics, the University of Warwick, and Yale University. He previously taught in the department of economics at the University of Melbourne, the University of Southern California, and the University of California, Berkeley. His main research interest is why countries differ, particularly why some are more prosperous than others and why some are more democratic than others.