Karol Jan Borowiecki

Research areas

Professor Karol J. Borowiecki is internationally recognized as a leading authority on the economic history of the arts, and he currently heads the Arts and Creativity focus area and the Creativity and Innovation in the Digital Age research cluster at SDU. Karol is mostly known for his highly original research approaches and for making a societal impact.

Despite his relatively young academic age, he has a strong publication record, publishing in leading economics journals, as well as interdisciplinary outlets. Furthermore, he has a forthcoming textbook with Cambridge University Press, and has co-edited a book with Springer on cultural heritage, which became a main reference point for scholars, practitioners and policy makers (with >460k downloads). Karol’s work provides original approaches to the study of existing, large problems, which cannot be analyzed in conventional ways. Some of his innovative work is regarded as path-breaking, e.g., the UN World Happiness Report 2019 presents Karol’s linguistic inquiry method to study well-being as a solution to "prediction policy problems". Karol is pioneer and lobbyist for the economic history of the arts (the intersection between economic history and cultural economics).

Karol’s position as one of the leading cultural economists in Europe has been recognized in a variety of ways. He has been collaborating with, consulting or influencing some of the most important institutions in Europe, including the European Commission, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta), The Arts Council England, and The Ministry of Culture and Communication in France. He shapes policy in Europe by frequently writing policy briefs and speaking to the public and media. Karol is globally ranked among top 5% economists and is among the top-10 cultural economists in the world (Ideas RePEc).

Karol has considerable research leadership experience, most recently, as PI of grants from the Independent Research Fund Denmark or the Carlsberg Foundation, or work-package leader within the INCULTUM consortium (H2020 €3.4m) and RICHES project (ERC €2.9m). He currently heads the interdisciplinary cluster Creativity and Innovation in the Digital Age with 40+ members from 4 faculties. He also supervises PhD students and a postdoc. His research has been recognized through prizes, and through frequent press coverage in numerous countries and languages. 

Karol’s services to the profession are many. He is guest editor at the Journal of Cultural Economics and the European Economic History Review, member of the editorial board of Tourism Economics and the Journal of Cultural Economics, founder and previously co-editor of EconomistsTalkArt.org, scientific panel member of the European Workshop of Applied Cultural Economics, and until recently executive board members of the Association of Cultural Economics International. In Denmark, he sat on the steering committee of the Danish Graduate Programme in Economics, and at SDU he serves as vice-chair of the departmental council and is profile responsible of the MSc in Economics program.

But much more interesting: Who are You? Please write Karol.

Research interests

Karol’s research interests are mainly at the intersection between cultural economics and economic history, but his work touches also on urban economics (creative clusters) and labor economics (especially migration of creative people).

Curriculum

Please find his CV here.