客員ファカルティーにインタビュー！　第22回　

Dr. Motohiro Kumagai visited our institute as a CEI visiting faculty member from December 9th, 2025 to March 9th, 2026. He completed his bachelor and master's program at Hitotsubashi University, and received his Ph. D. in Economics from Brown University.  He is currently working as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Research School of Economics at Australian National University. His research focuses on Economic Growth and Development, Political Economy, Cultural Economics, and History. We interviewed him about how he decided to become an economist, his areas of research, and his message to undergraduate and graduate students aspiring to become researchers.

Road to becoming an Economist

Q. How did you decide to become an economist? Was there any person or event that influenced your decision?

To be honest, there was no single big event or specific person that made me decide to become an economist. I do not have a "nice story" like being strongly influenced by a social problem in my childhood and deciding to solve it through economics.

Rather, my decision came gradually. As I studied more, especially during my master's program at Hitotsubashi University and PhD program at Brown University in the US, my interest in research grew stronger. Broadly speaking, my research is about understanding how differences in economic growth and inequality have been formed over history. While I was learning and working on research projects, I started to feel it was really exciting that we might be able to answer even a small part of such a big question. At some point, I realized that I seriously wanted to become an economist.

Research Field

Q. Could you please explain your research field 'economic measurement' in words that non-academics can understand?

My research field is to explore the fundamental reasons why economic growth and economic and political inequality emerged and why they have taken their current forms. For example, we tend to think education levels and technological progress are very important for economic growth, but these are only proximate causes, and we need to ask why there are differences in these factors themselves. The reasons can be institutions, culture, geography, climate, or historical events, and unless we understand these deeper causes, we cannot properly understand today's society. For instance, one thing we know through human history is that the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture was decisively important for later social development. Yet, there are many mysteries about why the transition to agriculture happened. In one of my studies, I show that large-scale killing of large mammals and their resulting extinction were a trigger for the transition to agriculture.

Message to the young scholars

Q. Could you give a message to the young researchers in the same field?

Since I am also a young researcher myself, I cannot offer advice to researchers of my generation. Instead, I would like to give a message to undergraduate and graduate students who are considering to be a researcher in the future.

First of all, no matter what field you are interested in, it is important to build a strong foundation in economics, econometrics, and mathematics. Whether your field is general or specific, theoretical or empirical, you will definitely use these basics as common tools.

Second, I believe that having interests outside economics is also important. It can be history, political science, ecology, biology, or any other field. Ideas can sometimes come from unexpected places.

Finally, given time constraints, it may be difficult to balance this with the advice above, but as you learn more, you will see what you are truly interested in, so study something fairly deeply. Fortunately, economics is a field where you have relatively good career options (academic, private sector, or government) after finishing a graduate school. So, you do not have to decide to become a researcher before going to a graduate school. Therefore, while you have time to study, please explore widely and deeply to find your true interests.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

Thank you, Dr. Kumagai, for taking the time to answer to our questions. We think the interview would surely be helpful for the undergraduates and graduate students seeking to become researchers in economics. It was a pleasure to have you here at our institute, and we sincerely wish you every success in your future endeavors!

(Interview answers provided by Dr. Motohiro Kumagai on March 8, 2026.)

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊