About Javier Mejia

Javier Mejia is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Political Science Department at Stanford University. His work focuses on the intersection between social networks and economic history, extending to topics on entrepreneurship and political economy with a geographical specialty in Latin America and the Middle East. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from Los Andes University. He has been a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at New York University--Abu Dhabi and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bordeaux. Javier is a regular contributor to different news outlets. Currently, he is a Forbes Magazine op-ed columnist.

Javier Mejia is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Political Science Department at Stanford University.

Javier's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Javier:

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, "Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity" (PublicAffairs, 2023)

May 5, 2023

Power and Progress

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson
Hosted by Javier Mejia

Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity (PublicAffairs, 2023) is a groundbreaking work by bestselling authors Da…

Peter Frankopan, "The Earth Transformed: An Untold History" (Knopf, 2023)

May 4, 2023

The Earth Transformed

Peter Frankopan
Hosted by Javier Mejia

The Earth Transformed. An Untold History (Knopf, 2023) is a captivating and informative book that reveals how climate change has been a driving force …

Harold James, "Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization" (Yale UP, 2023)

April 15, 2023

Seven Crashes

Harold James
Hosted by Javier Mejia

In Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization (Yale UP, 2023), distinguished economic historian Harold James offers a fresh perspect…

Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden, "Pioneers of Capitalism: The Netherlands 1000–1800" (Princeton UP, 2022)

March 18, 2023

Pioneers of Capitalism

Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden
Hosted by Javier Mejia

During the Middle Ages, the Netherlands played a significant role in the emergence of capitalism, which led to the impressive Dutch Golden Age and pav…

Anna M. Grzymała-Busse, "Sacred Foundations: The Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State" (Princeton UP, 2023)

February 19, 2023

Sacred Foundations

Anna M. Grzymała-Busse
Hosted by Javier Mejia

Sacred Foundations. The Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State (Princeton University Press, 2023) argues that the medieval church was a fu…

Andreas E. Feldmann et al., "The Routledge History of Modern Latin American Migration" (Routledge, 2022)

February 9, 2023

The Routledge History of Modern Latin American Migration

Andreas E. Feldmann, Xochitl Bada, and Jorge Durand
Hosted by Javier Mejia

The Routledge History of Modern Latin American Migration (Routledge, 2022) offers a systematic account of population movements to and from the region …

David Collier and Gerardo L. Munck, "Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies: Insights and Methods for Comparative Social Science" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)

January 21, 2023

Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies

David Collier and Gerardo L. Munck
Hosted by Javier Mejia

Over the past 50 years, scholars across the social sciences have employed critical juncture analysis to understand how social orders are created, beco…

Josiah Ober, "The Greeks and the Rational: The Discovery of Practical Reason" (U California Press, 2022)

January 1, 2023

The Greeks and the Rational

Josiah Ober
Hosted by Javier Mejia

Tracing practical reason from its origins to its modern and contemporary permutations, the Greek discovery of practical reason, as the skilled perform…

Clara E. Mattei, "The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

December 19, 2022

The Capital Order

Clara E. Mattei
Hosted by Javier Mejia

A groundbreaking examination of austerity’s dark intellectual origins. For more than a century, governments facing financial crisis have resorted to t…

Dan Slater and Joseph Wong, "From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia" (Princeton UP, 2022)

December 17, 2022

From Development to Democracy

Dan Slater and Joseph Wong
Hosted by Javier Mejia

Why some of Asia’s authoritarian regimes have democratized as they have grown richer—and why others haven’t Over the past century, Asia has been trans…

Leandro Prados de la Escosura, "Human Development and the Path to Freedom: 1870 to the Present" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

November 16, 2022

Human Development and the Path to Freedom

Leandro Prados de la Escosura
Hosted by Javier Mejia

How has human development evolved during the last 150 years of globalization and economic growth? How has human development been distributed across co…

Yuhua Wang, "The Rise and Fall of Imperial China: The Social Origins of State Development" (Princeton UP, 2022)

November 1, 2022

The Rise and Fall of Imperial China

Yuhua Wang
Hosted by Javier Mejia

How social networks shaped the imperial Chinese state China was the world’s leading superpower for almost two millennia, falling behind only in the la…

Ian Morris, "Geography Is Destiny: Britain and the World--A 10,000-Year History" (FSG, 2022)

October 31, 2022

Geography Is Destiny

Ian Morris
Hosted by Javier Mejia

In Geography Is Destiny: Britain and the World--A 10,000-Year History (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2022), Ian Morris chronicles the eight-thousand-year h…

J. Bradford DeLong, "Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century" (Basic Books, 2020)

September 5, 2022

Slouching Towards Utopia

J. Bradford DeLong
Hosted by Javier Mejia

From one of the world's leading economists, a grand narrative of the century that made us richer than ever, yet left us unsatisfied Before 1870, human…

Didac Queralt, "Pawned States: State Building in the Era of International Finance" (Princeton UP, 2022)

July 28, 2022

Pawned States

Didac Queralt
Hosted by Javier Mejia

How foreign lending weakens emerging nations In the nineteenth century, many developing countries turned to the credit houses of Europe for sovereign …

Johan Fourie, "Our Long Walk to Economic Freedom: Lessons from 100,000 Years of Human History" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

July 19, 2022

Our Long Walk to Economic Freedom

Johan Fourie
Hosted by Javier Mejia

Our Long Walk to Economic Freedom: Lessons from 100,000 Years of Human History (Cambridge UP, 2022) is an entertaining and engaging guide to global ec…

Christopher Blattman, "Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace" (Viking, 2022)

June 23, 2022

Why We Fight

Christopher Blattman
Hosted by Javier Mejia

In Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace (Viking, 2022), Chris Blattman explains the five reasons why conflict (rarely) blooms into wa…

Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin, "How the World Became Rich: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth" (Polity, 2022)

June 9, 2022

How the World Became Rich

Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin
Hosted by Javier Mejia

Most humans are significantly richer than their ancestors. Humanity gained nearly all of its wealth in the last two centuries. How did this come to pa…

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan, "Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success" (PublicAffairs, 2022)

June 1, 2022

Streets of Gold

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan
Hosted by Javier Mejia

In Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success (PublicAffairs, 2022), Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan reveal the true story of immigr…

Pierre Penet and Juan Flores Zendejas, "Sovereign Debt Diplomacies: Rethinking Sovereign Debt from Colonial Empires to Hegemony" (Oxford UP. 2021)

May 31, 2022

Sovereign Debt Diplomacies

Pierre Penet and Juan Flores Zendejas
Hosted by Javier Mejia

Pierre Penet and Juan Flores Zendejas' book Sovereign Debt Diplomacies: Rethinking Sovereign Debt from Colonial Empires to Hegemony (Oxford UP. 2021) …

Thomas Piketty, "A Brief History of Equality" (Harvard UP, 2022)

May 16, 2022

A Brief History of Equality

Thomas Piketty
Hosted by Javier Mejia

It's easy to be pessimistic about inequality. We know it has increased dramatically in many parts of the world over the past two generations. No one h…

Barry Eichengreen et al., "In Defense of Public Debt" (Oxford UP, 2021)

April 26, 2022

In Defense of Public Debt

Barry Eichengreen et al.
Hosted by Javier Mejia

Public debts have exploded to levels unprecedented in modern history as governments responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis. Th…

Elisabeth Anderson, "Agents of Reform: Child Labor and the Origins of the Welfare State" (Princeton UP, 2021)

April 11, 2022

Agents of Reform

Elisabeth Anderson
Hosted by Javier Mejia

The beginnings of the modern welfare state are often traced to the late nineteenth-century labor movement and to policymakers’ efforts to appeal to wo…

Alberto Bisin and Giovanni Federico, "The Handbook of Historical Economics" (Academic Press, 2021)

March 29, 2022

The Handbook of Historical Economics

Alberto Bisin and Giovanni Federico
Hosted by Javier Mejia

The Handbook of Historical Economics (Academic Press, 2021) guides students and researchers through a quantitative economic history that uses fully up…