Professor Stefan Dercon CMG, Professorial Fellow in Economics at Jesus College, is one of eight Oxford academics to be elected Fellows of the British Academy this year, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the humanities and social sciences. 

Founded in 1902, the British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. It is a Fellowship consisting of over 1,800 world-leading scholars from the UK and overseas. In 2025, a total of 58 UK Fellows, 30 International Fellows and four Honorary Fellows have been elected to the British Academy Fellowship.

Stefan is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the University’s Economics Department, and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. His research interests concern what keeps some people and countries poor: the failures of markets, governments and politics, mainly in Africa, and how to achieve change.

Alongside his academic career, Stefan works as a policy advisor, providing strategic economic and development advice, and promoting the use of evidence in decision making. Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief Economist of the Department of International Development (DFID), the government department in charge with the UK’s aid policy and spending. Between 2020-2022, he was the Development Policy Advisor to successive Foreign Secretaries at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

He is a Fellow of BREAD, a Research Fellow of CEPR and of IZA, an Affiliate of J-PAL, a Non-resident Fellow, Centre for Global Development, Washington and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacture (FRSA). He studied economics and philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and holds an MPhil and DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford. Before re-joining the University of Oxford, he held positions at the University of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), the Catholic University of Leuven, and WIDER (Helsinki), part of the United Nations University.

In 2018, the Queen awarded him as an honorary Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for services to economics and international development.

Of his election, Stefan said ‘I am honoured to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy. It is a privilege to join a community committed to rigorous scholarship as a foundation for better policy in the UK and globally.’