CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Stefan Dercon

British economist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ7606062
Source-derived summary

Stefan Nicolaas Dercon, , is a Belgian-British economist and a professor of economic policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford. He is also the director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies.

In 2018, the Queen awarded him as an Honorary Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for services to economics and international development. In 2021, because he also acquired British nationality, his honour was converted into a substantive one.

Early life and education

Dercon was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and pursued his higher education in both Belgium and the United Kingdom.

Dercon studied at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), where he obtained a BPhil degree in 1985 and a Licentiate in Economics in 1986. He subsequently received an MPhil in 1988 and a DPhil degree in 1992, both in Economics from the University of Oxford.

Career

After completing his doctorate, Dercon embarked on an academic career focused on development economics. In the 1990s, he held faculty positions at several institutions. From 1993 to 2000 he was a tenured Professor of Development Economics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven) in Belgium.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Stefan Dercon” as british economist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Stefan, Dercon and British.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2018, 2021, 1985, 1986—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1964-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Stefan, Dercon and British providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Stefan Dercon”, the useful work is to connect “british economist” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7606062. VIAF identifies the subject as 35373818. The Library of Congress control number is no98071354. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2018, 2021, 1985 and 1986.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Stefan Dercon”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Stefan Dercon primary sources, Stefan Dercon archive and Stefan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Stefan Dercon”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Stefan Dercon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.