Good ideas can come from unexpected places.”
Christopher Sims
PhD Candidate in Economics
Christopher Sims is a PhD candidate in Economics in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, where he studies the economic history of the pre-20th century. His research explores historical innovations and their long-term impacts. Outside of his studies, Christopher enjoys watching mystery shows and competing on Northwestern’s Quiz Bowl team.
How would you describe your research and/or work to a non-academic audience?
I work primarily on the economic history of Europe before the 20th century, an era of significant economic and social changes. One of my projects (co-authored with my classmate Matteo Ruzzante) studies a major innovation during this time period that has received less attention: the introduction of nitrogen fertilizers, which occurred after the discovery of guano and nitrate deposits in South America. We study the impacts of this on England, one of the major fertilizer users, and find that fertilizers served as a "great equalizer": the places that benefited were typically less productive and grew less lucrative crops before their introduction but converged with the rest of the country thereafter.
What have been some of the most memorable twists and turns of your career?
When working on economic history, data availability is always an issue: you often don't know what you will find in an archive or source until you put in quite a bit of effort. Things can go both ways: various publications attested to the existence of data on farm yields in England starting in 1884, but for the life of me, I haven't been able to find them anywhere. By contrast, while browsing some old newspapers in the British Library, we happened upon a great source on historical grain prices that hopefully can be used for several projects going forward.
Tell us what inspired your research and/or work.
I have always loved history, but in undergrad, I studied economics and learned that economic history existed as a vibrant field of study. I have come across topics for research in a variety of ways, mostly organically. For instance, I learned about the basic premise of the fertilizers paper several years ago when reading Charles C. Mann's excellent book 1493 about the Columbian Exchange between the Old and New Worlds.
What do you find both rewarding and challenging about your research and/or work?
The last 5-10 years have been good for economic history research: the advent of new econometric tools has helped improve causal inference, new optical character recognition and machine learning programs allow us to affordably transcribe and clean data, and GIS software can translate spatial variation into numbers we can use in a regression. It's certainly challenging to learn about all these new tools but also rewarding given how cutting-edge many of them are.
Why Northwestern?
I was admitted to the program in 2020, so there was no way to do any campus visits (couldn't even see the amazing views!). But there's a great economic history group here, and the environment seemed very collegial, so I'm happy with my choice.
How do you unwind after a long day?
My girlfriend and I love watching TV adaptations of Agatha Christie's murder mystery novels with our cat, Piko. I also play on the Northwestern Quiz Bowl team, where we compete against other universities—it's a great way to meet people outside your field!
What books are on your bedside table?
I mostly read about history and philosophy—currently (and belatedly) Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers about the causes of World War I, inspired by a London Review of Books article that mentioned it. Sometimes a novel sneaks in there too; one of my favorites of recent years is A Gentleman in Moscow.
What advice would you give your younger self or someone considering a similar path?
I think it's very important to read widely in your areas of interest: if you just read the existing academic literature, it can be harder to find something novel or exciting, which is ultimately the goal of pursuing original research. Good ideas can come from unexpected places.
Publish Date: March 18, 2025
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