Bio

I am an economic historian interested in banking and financial history, the economics of crime, and the economics of race and racial identity. My research in banking history focuses on two issues: (1) the connection between banking and economic development in the nineteenth-century; and (2) how alternative corporate governance institutions within banks influence lending choices. My research into the history of crime focuses on recidivism, plea bargaining, immigration and crime, and the connection between alcohol prohibition and violence. My research into race focuses on color-based disparities among African Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I have received major grants from the National Science Foundation and fellowships from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (2006) and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (2009). I am a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in the Development of the American Economy group.