2026 Simon Johnson: Political Science Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Political Science	64	85	74	51	42	246	60419
Economics and Finance	64	611	551	389	343	262	63122

Research.com Recognitions

2023 - Research.com Political Science in United States Leader Award

Overview

Simon Johnson is affiliated with MIT in the United States and has made contributions across several interdisciplinary fields related to economics, social sciences, and epidemiology. Their research often intersects topics such as economic theory and policy, ethics and social impacts of artificial intelligence, and poverty, education, and child welfare.

Their frequent areas of study include:

Economics and Econometrics
Safety Research
Sociology and Political Science
Epidemiology
General Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Johnson's main research topics cover:

Economic Theory and Policy
Influenza Virus Research Studies
Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Historical Economic and Social Studies
Political Economy and Marxism
Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare
Economic Growth and Productivity

Among their recent scholarly papers are:

"The impact of generative artificial intelligence on socioeconomic inequalities and policy making," 2024, published in PNAS Nexus
"Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity," 2025, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith
"Learning From Ricardo and Thompson: Machinery and Labor in the Early Industrial Revolution and in the Age of Artificial Intelligence," 2024, Annual Review of Economics
"Large learning gains in pockets of extreme poverty: Experimental evidence from Guinea Bissau," 2021, Journal of Public Economics
"The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Socioeconomic Inequalities and Policy Making," 2024, SSRN Electronic Journal

Their work has appeared in multiple academic venues, with frequent publications in:

SSRN Electronic Journal
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Journal of General Virology
PNAS Nexus
Annual Review of Economics

Johnson has collaborated extensively with several researchers, including:

Daron Acemoğlu
Elizabeth Billington
Cecilia Di Genova
Saumya S. Thomas
Sofia Riccio

In addition to journal articles, Johnson has contributed to book publications such as Guide to Mobility for Livable Pacific Cities: Part 2, published in 2024 by Washington, DC: World Bank eBooks.

Best Publications

The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;James A. Robinson

6529
Citations
Unbundling Institutions

Unknown

2862
Citations
Institutions as the fundamental cause of Long-Run growth

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;James Arthur Robinson

2700
Citations
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: GEOGRAPHY AND INSTITUTIONS IN THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD INCOME DISTRIBUTION*

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;James A. Robinson

2634
Citations
Corporate Governance in the Asian Financial Crisis

Simon Johnson;Peter Boone;Alasdair Breach;Eric Friedman

2628
Citations
Cronyism and capital controls: evidence from Malaysia☆

Simon Johnson;Todd Mitton

2257
Citations
Dodging the grabbing hand: the determinants of unofficial activity in 69 countries

Eric Friedman;Simon Johnson;Daniel Kaufmann;Pablo Zoido-Lobaton

2168
Citations
Disease and Development: The Effect of Life Expectancy on Economic Growth

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson

1989
Citations
Tunneling

Unknown

1896
Citations
The unofficial Economy in Transition

Simon Johnson;Daniel Kaufmann;Andrei Shleifer

1832
Citations
Property Rights and Finance

Simon Johnson;John McMillan;Christopher Woodruff

1719
Citations
Regulatory Discretion and the Unofficial Economy

Simon Johnson;Daniel Kaufmann;Pablo Zoido-Lobaton

1624
Citations
Property Rights and Finance

Simon Johnson;John McMillan;Christopher Woodruff

1616
Citations
Institutions as the Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth

Daron Acemoglu;Daron Acemoglu;Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;Simon Johnson;James A. Robinson;James A. Robinson;James A. Robinson

1545
Citations
The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;James Robinson

1331
Citations
Chapter 6 Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;James A. Robinson

1316
Citations
Propping and Tunneling

Eric Friedman;Simon Johnson;Todd Mitton

1286
Citations
13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown

Simon Johnson;James Kwak

1271
Citations
Institutional Causes, Macroeconomic Symptoms: Volatility, Crises and Growth

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;James A. Robinson;Yunyong Thaicharoen

1255
Citations
The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth

Daron Acemoglu;Simon H. Johnson;James A. Robinson

1210
Citations
Income and Democracy

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;James A. Robinson;Pierre Yared

1134
Citations
The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation

Daron Acemoglu;Daron Acemoglu;Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;Simon Johnson;James A. Robinson;James A. Robinson;James A. Robinson

977
Citations
Coase Versus the Coasians

Edward Glaeser;Simon Johnson;Andrei Shleifer

862
Citations
The value of connections in turbulent times: Evidence from the United States

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;Amir Kermani;James Kwak

781
Citations
Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;James Robinson

418
Citations
How to Stabilize: Lessons from Post-Communist Countries

Andres Aslund;Peter Boone;Simon Johnson;Stanley Fischer

416
Citations
The Prospects for Sustained Growth in Africa: Benchmarking the Constraints

Simon Johnson;Simon Johnson;Jonathan D Ostry;Arvind Subramanian;Arvind Subramanian

392
Citations
Entrepreneurs and the Ordering of Institutional Reform: Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Russia and Ukraine Compared

Simon Johnson;John McMillan;Christopher Woodruff

371
Citations
Determinants of Vertical Integration: Financial Development and Contracting Costs

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;Todd Mitton

324
Citations
Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution

Daron Acemoglu;Daron Acemoglu;Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;Simon Johnson;James A. Robinson;James A. Robinson;James A. Robinson

324
Citations
Corruption, public finances, and the unofficial economy

Simon Johnson;Simon Johnson;Pablo Zoido-Lobaton;Daniel Kaufmann

256
Citations
Starting over in Eastern Europe: Entrepreneurship and Economic Renewal

Robert Legvold;Simon Johnson;Gary Loveman

222
Citations
When Does Policy Reform Work?: The Case of Central Bank Independence

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;Pablo Querubín;James A. Robinson

203
Citations
Starting over: Poland after communism

Gary Loveman;Simon Johnson

173
Citations
Disease and Development in Historical Perspective

Daron Acemoglu;Simon Johnson;James Robinson

148
Citations
Regulatory Discretion and the Unofficial Economy

Simon Johnson;Simon Johnson;Daniel Kaufmann;Pablo Zoido

143
Citations
Contract enforcement in transition

Simon Johnson;Simon Johnson;John McMillan;Christopher Woodruff

143
Citations
Corporate Governance in the Asian Financial Crisis 1997-98

Simon Johnson;Simon Johnson;Alasdair Breach;Eric Friedman

112
Citations
Property rights, finance, and entrepreneurship

Simon Johnson;Simon Johnson;John McMillan;Christopher Woodruff

110
Citations
Dodging the Grabbing Hand: The Determinants of Unofficial Activity in 69

Eric Friedman;Simon Johnson;Daniel Kaufmann;Pablo Zoido-Lobaton

83
Citations
Why Do Firms Hide? Bribes and Unofficial Activity after Communism

Simon Johnson;John McMillan;Christopher Woodruff

14
Citations

Frequent Co-Authors

Daron Acemoglu MIT

James A. Robinson University of Chicago

David N. Weil Brown University

Sebastian Edwards University of California, Los Angeles

Arvind Subramanian Center for Global Development

Christopher Woodruff University of Oxford

John McMillan Stanford University

Andrei Shleifer Harvard University

Jonathan D. Ostry University of Toronto

Chris Papageorgiou International Monetary Fund

External Links

Wikipedia of Simon Johnson Personal website of Simon Johnson Google Scholar page

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