Neil De Marchi
Neil De Marchi is an Australian economist and historian of economic thought and is a Professor at Duke University.
Born in Katanning on 25 December 1938, and was raised in the company of women including his mother, sister and aunts. His father died when he was only a young child. He was educated in Katanning before attending the University of Western Australia where he received his first degree in economics and history in 1960.
While there he received a Rhodes Scholarship which took him to Oxford University in England where his studies in economics took an historical approach. He returned to Australia with a lectureship at Monash University in Melbourne. At the same time Neil proceeded with a doctorate which he completed in 1970. He then made his way back to England for research courtesy of the Nuffield Foundation.
A year later Neil began his life-long association with Duke University in Durham, North Carolina in the United states (1971-80) before resigning to take up positions in Holland with the Algemene Bank for three years. He returned to Duke University in 1983 and was promoted to a full professor three years later.
De Marchi specialises in both teaching and research that pertains to the history of economic ideas and the history of markets, and also the functioning of markets with a specific focus on art markets. His works have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation, the Journal of Econometrics, the European Journal for the History of Economic Thought, and the Art Bulletin. He has also contributed to pieces within various books, having written introductions to such works as “Idealisation in Economics, Poznan Studies 38,” and a biographical entry of John Stuart Mill for The Handbook of Economic Methodology. De Marchi received his Ph.D. from Australian National University in 1970, after completing his B.Phil in economics at the University of Oxford. He also obtained his B.Ec with first-class honors in 1960 from the University of Western Australia. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the History of Economics Society.
He received a generous grant from the Luce Foundation for an economics/art history collaboration that he shared with Goodwin, Van Miegroet, and Wharton. This research explores the political economy of spaces, creates arguments for the arts, and maps European markets for paintings from the years 1450-1750.
Recent titles of his other works include, “Brueghel in Paris” and “The History of Art Markets,” both with Hans J. Van Miegroet; and “Smith and Hume on the Arts, Pleasure, and the Public Interest,” a contribution to the Luce-funded project pertaining to arguments for the arts.
As a professor, De Marchi has served as chair or co-chair for over ten doctoral dissertation committees since 1986. Although he has spent most of his career in academia, Neil has also held positions within the professional world of economics, including his service as director of research for the Economics Research Department of the ABN Bank, Amsterdam, from 1980-83. He currently serves as an associate editor for the journal History of Political Economy.
Some of Dr Neil De Marchi’s Books
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Dr Neil De Marchi at Duke University