Walker Hanlon is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles and an economic historian. He focuses on understanding the forces driving innovation and economic growth using old and underappreciated data analyzed through the lens of modern economics. He also teaches a popular undergraduate course in Urban Economics and a graduate course in European Economic History.

During his Hellman Fellowship in 2014 he began a new research project collecting shipbuilding data from the Lloyds of London Shipping Registries which provided near comprehensive coverage of the global industry from the 1850s through the 1920s. This dataset led to two major publications and new evidence that the initial cost advantages of producing a traded good can have a long-run impact on production, trade, and how competitive a country is in an industry — an issue that lies at the center of many debates about industrial policy and trade protection.