Joel Mokyr, born in Leiden, the Netherlands, on 26 July 1946, is a US and Israeli citizen. He is currently Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences (since 1994) and Professor of Economics and History (since 1981) at Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, and Sackler Professorial Fellow at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at the University of Tel Aviv (since 2001).
 
He earned his BA in Economics and History in 1968 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his MPhil and PhD in Economics from Yale University in 1972 and 1974 respectively.
 
Before his present appointments at Northwestern University as the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History, he taught there as Assistant Professor of Economics (1974-77), Associate Professor of Economics (1978-80) and Professor of Economics and History (1980-81).

He has been a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Harvard University, the University College of Dublin, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Manchester, the University of Tel Aviv and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzlyia, Israel.

He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995), Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001) and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (2004). He serves as chair of the Advisory Committee to the Institutions, Organizations, and Growth Group of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

 
He is on several editorial boards of peer-reviewed journals, and continues to be Editor in Chief of the Princeton University Press series The Princeton University Press Economic History of the Western World.