Price V. Fishback

Regents Professor
APS Professor of Economics
Price V. Fishback

McClelland Hall 401GG
1130 East Helen Street 
P.O. Box 210108 
Tucson, Arizona 85721-0108 

Areas of Expertise

Economic history
Labor Economics
Law and economics
Political economy and regulation

Price Fishback joined the Eller College of Management as associate professor in 1990 after teaching at the University of Georgia. He was appointed the Thomas R. Brown Professor of Economics in 2010. He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Washington in 1983. His research area of interest is the political economy of Roosevelt’s New Deal during the 1930s, examining both the determinants of New Deal spending and loans and their impact on local economies throughout the U.S. He also works on state labor legislation during the Progressive Era, the American Economy during World War II and changes in agriculture in response to climate, government policy and technology. Fishback is also a research affiliate at the Centre for Economic History at Australian National University, a CAGE Fellow at Warwick University, a program scholar for the Hoover Program on Regulation and the Rule of Law, a fellow at the TIAA-CREF Institute and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Courses

  • ECON 550 Economics for Managers
  • ECON 508 Applied Economics Analysis

Publications and Working Papers

Books

  • Well Worth Saving:  How the New Deal Safeguarded Home Ownership, University of Chicago Press, 2013,(with J. Rose and K. Snowden)
  • Government and the American Economy:  A New History. University of Chicago Press, 2007, Editor and Organizer of co-authored book (with R. Higgs, G. Libecap, J. Wallis, S. Engerman, J. Hummel, S. LaCroix, R. Margo, R. McGuire, R. Sylla, L. Alston, J. Ferrie, M. Guglielmo, E.C. Pasour, Jr., R. Rucker, and W. Troesken)
  • Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers' Compensation, University of Chicago Press, 2000 (with S. Kantor)
  • Soft Coal, Hard Choices: The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners,1890 to 1930, Oxford University Press, 1992

Selected Journals

  • “How Successful Was the New Deal? The Microeconomic Impact of New Deal Spending and Lending Policies,” Journal of Economic Literature, forthcoming.  Currently, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Number w21925, 2016
  • “Flip the Switch: The Spatial Impact of the Rural Electrification Administration 1935-1940,”  Journal of Economic History, 2014, 75 (December): 1161-1195 (with C. Kitchens)
  • “The Multiplier for Federal Spending in the States During the Great Depression," Journal of Economic History, 2015, 75 (March): 125-162 (with V. Kachanovskaya)
  • Comparisons of Weekly Hours Over the Past Century and the Importance of Work Sharing Policies in the 1930s,” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 2013, 102 (May): 105-110 (with T. Neumann and J. Taylor)
  • “Second World War Spending and Local Economic Activity in U.S. Counties, 1939-1958,” Economic History Review, 2013. Previously, "Did Big Government’s Largesse Help the Locals? The Implications of WWII Spending for Local Economic Activity, 1939-1958," NBER Working Paper Number 12801
  • "Striking at the Roots of Crime: The Impact of Social Welfare Spending on Crime During the Great Depression," Journal of Law and Economics, 2010, 53 (November): 715-740 (with R. Johnson and S. Kantor)
  • “Births, Deaths, and New Deal Relief During the Great Depression,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 2007, 89 (February): 1-14 (with M. Haines and S. Kantor)
  • "The Impact of New Deal Expenditures on Local Economic Activity: An Examination of Retail Sales, 1929-1939,"  Journal of Economic History, 2005, (March):  36-71 (with W. C. Horrace and S. Kantor) Reprinted in The Seminal Works of the Great Depression, 2011, edited by R. Parker, Edward Elgar Press

Working Papers

Videos

Awards and Honors

Research

  • Arthur Cole Prize for Best Article in the Journal of Economic History between 8/1/2014 and 7/31/2015, shared with Valentina Kachanovskaya for “The Multiplier for the States in the Great Depression," 2015, Volume 75 (March):  125-162.
  • Fellow of the Cliometric Society, inducted June 2013.
  • IPUMS-USA/IPUMS-CPS Research Awards for Published Work. 2010. Co-winner for “The Effect of Internal Migration on Local Labor Markets:  American Cities During the Great Depression,” Journal of Labor Economics, 2010, 28 (October): 719-746 (with L. Platt Boustan and S. Kantor)  Awarded by the Minnesota Population Center. 
  • “Cliometrics Can,” Cliometrics Society Award for Exceptional Support for the Field of Cliometrics, May 2002.
  • Paul Samuelson Award, Certificate of Excellence For Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security for A Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers’ Compensation, with Shawn E. Kantor. Award presented by the TIAA-CREF Institute for works published in the year 2000.
  • Richard A. Lester Prize for the Outstanding Book in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations published in 2000, awarded annually by the Industrial Relations Section at Princeton University, shared with Shawn Kantor.
  • Cole Prize, awarded for the best article in the Journal of Economic History in 1996-1997, shared with Shawn Kantor.
  • Finalist for Nevins Prize, 1983, awarded to the leading dissertation in American Economic History.

Teaching

  • University of Arizona Graduate College Teaching and Mentoring Award in February 2016. 
  • Jonathan R.T. Hughes Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Economic History from the Economic History Association in September 2015.  
  • 11 MBA Awards for Outstanding or Distinguished Faculty (Daytime Program:  2015, 2014, 2013, 2010, 2009, 2004, 2003, 2000; Executive Program:  2011, 2009; Weekend Program:  1999).

Datasets

Degree(s)

  • PhD in Economics, University of Washington, 1983