Peter Murrell, Professor in the Economics Department, received his B.Sc. (Econ) and M.Sc. (Econ) from the London School of Economics and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the Maryland faculty in 1977 as an assistant professor. He served as chair of the department from 2005 to 2012.

From his Ph.D. dissertation days, his research interests have always been in comparative economic institutions, focusing first on the socialist economies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and on the social democracies of post-war Western Europe, then on the institutional reforms in post-Soviet countries and China, and currently on the genesis of the first modern economic and political institutions, those of 17th century England. He has undertaken field research, surveying firms-in Mongolia, Russia, and Romania, an experience that led him to develop new methods of improving the accuracy of survey estimates of corrupt activities. He has published 85 peer-reviewed journal articles, 22 chapters in collected editions, two books, and one edited collection.