Paul R. Gregory

Research Fellow
Biography: 

Paul Gregory is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He holds an endowed professorship in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, Texas, is a research professor at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, and is emeritus chair of the International Advisory Board of the Kiev School of Economics. Gregory has held visiting teaching appointments at Moscow State University, Viadrina University, and the Free University of Berlin. He blogs on national and international economic topics at http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/ and http://paulgregorysblog.blogspot.com/.

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. Gregory’s economics papers have been published in American Economic Review, Econometrica, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Economic History, and the Journal of Comparative Economics.  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), which won the Hewett Prize. He edited The Lost Transcripts of the Politburo (Yale, 2008), Behind the Façade of Stalin's Command Economy (Hoover, 2001), and The Economics of Forced Labor: The Soviet Gulag (Hoover, 2003). The work of his Hoover Soviet Archives Research Project team is summarized in "Allocation under Dictatorship: Research in Stalin's Archive" (coauthored with Hoover fellow Mark Harrison), published in the Journal of Economic Literature.

Gregory has also published The Global Economy and Its Economic Systems (Cengage, 2013) and is working with director Marianna Yarovskaya on a film documentary entitled Women of the Gulag.

Gregory also served on the editorial board of the seven-volume Gulag documentary series entitled The History of the Stalin Gulag, published jointly by the Hoover Institution and the Russian Archival Service. He also serves or has served on the editorial boards of Comparative Economic Studies, Slavic Review, Journal of Comparative Economics, Problems of Post-Communism, and Explorations in Economic History.

His research papers are available at the Hoover Institution Archives.

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Recent Commentary

Featured Commentary

Residents Of Donbass Tell Separatists To Leave: A Glimmer Of Hope?

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Forbes
Wednesday, June 17, 2015

The residents of occupied Donbass have suffered death and hardship that would disappear if the separatists went away. Will they eventually, driven by desperation, use people power to rid themselves of the Russian-backed forces? If so, Russia will face a hard decision.

Putin
Featured Commentary

Deconstructing Putin's Approval Ratings: One Thousand Casualties For Every Point

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Forbes
Monday, June 8, 2015

Vladimir Putin stakes his claim to leadership on approval ratings that would be the envy of any democratic politician. Skeptics, however, question the meaning of approval ratings when a dictator appoints all political positions and ensures that rivals are distrusted by the electorate.

Kotkin's new book was available for sale after the event
Blogs

Books About Stalin Everywhere In Moscow

by Paul R. Gregoryvia What Paul Gregory Is Thinking About (Blog)
Tuesday, June 2, 2015

My colleague, Marianna Yarovskaya, sent me these images of a typical Moscow bookstore. Books on Stalin are everywhere. This is part of an official campaign to glorify Stalin's image as a strong and decisive leader who was up to all challenges.

Featured Commentary

The Russian Decline Is Accelerating: GDP Down 4.3% In 1Q15

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Forbes
Monday, June 1, 2015

In his annual address to parliament on April 21, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev reported that gross domestic product (GDP) had declined 2 percent in the first quarter.  Medvedev assured the Russian people that his economic team had everything under control, that the recession would be mild, and that growth would resume in 2016.

Featured Commentary

Sanction FIFA And Putin At The Same Time: Take The 2018 World Cup From Russia

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Forbes
Thursday, May 28, 2015

The soccer World Cup gives the host country prestige, publicity, and international recognition. The World Cups in 2010 and 2014 hosted by South Africa and Brazil–two BRICS countries–signaled their arrival on the world scene. A third BRICS member, Russia, is scheduled to host in 2018. The two largest public relations feathers in Vladimir Putin’s hat are the Sochi Olympics and now the upcoming World Cup.

Featured Commentary

A Russian Crisis With No End In Sight, Thanks To Low Oil Prices And Sanctions

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Forbes
Thursday, May 14, 2015

Unlike the 2008/9 financial crisis, Russia faces a long and deep recession because the underlying causes are unlikely to go away in the near term. Former Russian prime minister Evgeny Primakov warned that, if Vladimir Putin continues his Ukraine policies, Russia will become a pariah third-world petro state. The fundamentals of the Russian economy, as it enters 2015, suggest that Russia is fulfilling Primakov’s prophesy.

Featured Commentary

Europe Gives $260 Billion For Anti-EU Greece But Balks At $65 Billion For Pro-Europe Ukraine

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Forbes
Monday, May 4, 2015

Greece’s election of an anti-Europe government showed it wants out. Ukraine’s EuroMaidan revolution shows it was willing to risk its existence to become a part of Europe. Europe has showered recalcitrant Greece with hundreds of billions of bailout funds while begrudgingly giving Ukraine tens of billions just to keep it alive, even though Ukraine is fighting Europe’s war against Russian expansionism.

Blogs

The Ultimate Putin Sympathizer: Germany’s Ex-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt

by Paul R. Gregoryvia What Paul Gregory Is Thinking About (Blog)
Thursday, April 30, 2015

Former German Chancellor (“Alt Kanzler”) Helmut Schmidt appeared on the Sandra Maischberger interview show on Germany’s Channel 1 (ARD) to express his views of the world at age 96. Schmidt served as German chancellor from 1974 to 1982 under his social democratic (SPD) administration. Chain-smoking Schmidt remains Germany’s most popular (living) former chancellor and still has enormous influence over German political thought. 

Blogs

German Television’s Investigation Of Death-Flight MH17

by Paul R. Gregoryvia What Paul Gregory Is Thinking About (Blog)
Monday, April 27, 2015

Germany’s channel 1 (ARD) is running its investigative report of the downing of  “Death Flight” (Todesflug) MH 17. Although it lets Russian separatist leaders and Russian propagandists present their narrative, ARD does conclude that MH17 was shot down by a BUK missile system operating in rebel territory, most likely by a Russian crew.

Featured Commentary

EU's Antitrust Charge Against Gazprom: Another Putin Disaster

by Paul R. Gregoryvia Forbes
Monday, April 20, 2015

The Wall Street Journal reports that the European Union’s antitrust commission will file charges against Gazprom, the Russian state-owned natural gas company, on Wednesday.

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