Paul R. Gregory

Research Fellow
Biography: 

Paul Gregory is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is Cullen Professor Emeritus in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, a research fellow at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, and emeritus chair of the International Advisory Board of the Kiev School of Economics. Gregory has held visiting teaching appointments at Moscow State University and the Free University of Berlin.

Gregory was the director of the Russian Petroleum Legislation Project of the University of Houston Law Center from 1992 to 1997 and has written broadly on Russian energy.

The holder of a PhD in economics from Harvard University, he is the author or coauthor of twelve books and more than one hundred articles on economic history, the Soviet economy, transition economies, comparative economics, and economic demography. His most recent books are Women of the Gulag: Portraits of Five Remarkable Lives (Hoover Institution Press, 2013), Politics, Murder, and Love in Stalin’s Kremlin: The Story of Nikolai Bukharin and Anna Larina (Hoover Institution Press, 2010), Lenin’s Brain and Other Tales from the Secret Soviet Archives (Hoover Institution Press, 2008), Terror by Quota (Yale, 2009), and The Political Economy of Stalinism (Cambridge, 2004), for which he received the Hewett Prize, awarded to works on the political economy of Russia, Eurasia, or Eastern Europe. He co-edited The Lost Transcripts of the Politburo (Yale, 2008). His archival work is summarized in “Allocation under Dictatorship: Research in Stalin’s Archive” (Journal of Economic Literature.) As a producer, Gregory worked with director Marianna Yarovskaya on the documentary film Women of the Gulag, which was short-listed for the 2019 Academy Awards.

Gregory blogs for Defining Ideas and The Hill and tweets at #PaulR_Gregory.

Filter By:

Topic

Type

Recent Commentary

Analysis and Commentary

Colonel Gaddafi's Lesson for Dictators

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Forbes.com
Sunday, October 30, 2011

Joseph Stalin wrote the playbook for dictators...

Now We Can Rest Easy: Brussels Bureaucrats Are Protecting Us From Financial Risk

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Advancing a Free Society
Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Soviet leadership did not publish deliberately falsified statistics. They just dropped statistical reporting when things went bad. Outside observers could get a sense for how well the economy was doing by the number of pages in the annual statistical handbook.

Analysis and Commentary

Now We Can We Rest Easy: Brussels Bureaucrats Are Protecting Us From Financial Risk

by Paul R. Gregoryvia What Paul Gregory Is Writing About
Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Soviet leadership did not publish deliberately falsified statistics. They just dropped statistical reporting when things went bad...It seems as if Brussels bureaucrats have learned from Soviet practice...

Of Course They Shot Gaddafi and They Should Have

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Advancing a Free Society
Monday, October 24, 2011

The Western world is shaking its collective head over what appears to be the cold-blooded shooting of Gaddafi. Editorialists and pundits solemnly tutor the “barbaric” Libyans that justice should have been done, even for someone as evil as their deposed dictator.

Analysis and Commentary

Of Course They Shot Gaddafi and They Should Have

by Paul R. Gregoryvia What Paul Gregory Is Writing About
Sunday, October 23, 2011

Let’s accept the fact that the Libyans made the right choice and leave them alone. Let’s be glad they began their building of a new state with a good decision...

Obama does not understand adverse selection

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Advancing a Free Society
Friday, October 21, 2011

We economists discovered moral hazard and adverse selection in the mid-1980s. These terms came to us from the insurance industry and fit in well with our growing interest in information economics.

Don't Hold Your Breath For A Brussels Solution To Europe's Crisis

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Advancing a Free Society
Friday, October 21, 2011

Despite high hopes, this weekend’s summit of EU finance ministers and heads of state will find no magic silver bullet. Ignore the obligatory optimistic communiqué at the end of the summit. The crisis will continue with no end in sight.

Analysis and Commentary

Don't Hold Your Breath For A Brussels Solution To Europe's Crisis

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Forbes.com
Thursday, October 20, 2011

Despite high hopes, this weekend’s summit of EU finance ministers and heads of state will find no magic silver bullet...

Analysis and Commentary

Obama does not understand adverse selection

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Daily Caller (DC)
Thursday, October 20, 2011

Obamacare has brought adverse selection to the forefront. It explains and will continue to explain why Obamacare will not work...

Very Harsh Words from Germany for Obama

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Advancing a Free Society
Monday, October 17, 2011

The Spiegel is Germany’s most widely read political magazine. Like other German print media, it gushed with enthusiasm for Obama, but no more.

Pages