Faculty Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
Former Position
Historian of the Federal Reserve System (2012-2016)
My research spans several broad topics in economics and history.
One is how central banks, financial networks, and commercial banks influence the economy. A related line of research examines the causes and consequences of the Great Depression of the 1930s and particularly the financial panics which transformed an otherwise ordinary contraction into the deepest downturn in modern world history. Another related line of research examines the positives and negatives of central bank and financial regulatory independence.
Two is the impact of property rights and economic development, with an emphasis on England before and during the Industrial Revolution.
Three is the role of religion and culture on the organization of economic activity in late medieval and early modern Europe.
My Ph.D. in Economics is from U.C. Berkeley.
My B.A. in Political Science is from the University of Chicago.
From 2012 to 2016, I served as the first official Historian of the Federal Reserve System.