Professor Nicholas Crafts, a leading scholar of industrial revolution and British economic history passed away overnight on 6 October 2023. At the time of his death Nick was Professor of Economic History at the University of Sussex, an appointment that he took up in 2019. He was also the elected Chair of the Council of Trustees of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), a post he held from December 2020. Nick’s previous career included faculty positions at the universities of Oxford, Warwick and LSE. An alumnus of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, Nick was also President of the Economic History Society from 2004-2007 and Royal Economic Society in 2022/23. He was a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Economic History Association, and a Fellow of the Cliometrics Society. He was made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2014 for services to economics.
Nick’s groundbreaking collaborative work with Charles Harley on the measurement of economic growth in Britain at the industry and sector levels engendered new interpretation of industrial revolution. More recently, Nick documented Britain’s productivity slowdown in his book ‘Forging Ahead, Falling Behind and Fighting Back: British Economic Growth from the Industrial Revolution to the Financial Crisis’ and associated papers. He identified a weak post-2008 financial system, weaker gains from technological progress in IT, and decline in investment as key factors dragging productivity growth.
He generously supported doctoral students, early career researchers, and colleagues. He served his profession at the highest level selflessly with dignity and honour. Nick will be remembered with respect and affection by the Department of Economics at the University of Sussex Business School.