PRICE VANMETER FISHBACK

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Married to Pamela Slaten
U.S. Citizen

EDUCATION

• Butler University (B.A. with honors in Mathematics and Economics, 1977, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Eta Sigma)

• University of Washington (M.A. in Economics, 1979)

• University of Washington (Ph.D. in Economics, 1983)
  Ph.D. Thesis: "Employment Conditions of Blacks in the Coal Industry, 1900-1930," supervised by Robert Higgs. Finalist for Nevins Prize.

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

Economic History, Labor Economics, Applied Microeconomics

JOB EXPERIENCE

• Professor, University of Arizona, 1993-present.
  
• Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1994-present.
  
• Research Economist, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1993-94.
  
• Associate Professor, University of Arizona, 1990-1993.
  
• Associate Professor, University of Georgia, 1987-91
  
• Visitor, University of Texas, Austin, 1987-89.
  
• Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, 1983 to 1987.
  
• Temporary Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, 1982-1983.
  
• Economic Research and Forecasting for Weyerhaeuser Company, 1979-1980.
  
• Teaching Assistant, University of Washington, 1977-1982.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

American Economic Association
Economic History Association
Western Economic Association
Cliometrics Society
National Bureau of Economic Research

TEACHING AWARDS

Swift Teaching Award in the Economics Department, University of Georgia, received Spring 1984.
Honors Day Recognition for Outstanding Teaching in the Economics Department,
University of Georgia, 1983, 1984, 1986.

SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION

Editorial Board, Journal of Economic History, 1991-1994.
Trustee, Cliometrics Society, 1994-.
Conference Coordinator, Cliometrics Society, 1996-.
Editor for Chapter on Social Welfare Statistics for Millienial Edition of Historical Statistics of the United States

BOOKS

Soft Coal, Hard Choices: The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners, 1890 to 1930. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Special session held for the book at the Social Science History Association meetings in Baltimore, November 1993.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

1. "The Durable Experiment: State Insurance of Workers' Compensation Risk in the Early Twentieth Century," Journal of Economic History 56 (December 1996), pp. 809-836, with Shawn Kantor.

2. "Precautionary Saving, Insurance, and the Origins of Workers' Compensation, Journal of Political Economy 104 (April 1996), pp. 419-442, with Shawn E. Kantor.

3. "Did Workers Gain from the Passage of Workers' Compensation Laws?," Quarterly Journal of Economics, (August 1995), pp. 713-742, with Shawn Kantor. Earlier version was National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 4947.

4. "NonFatal Accident Compensation Under the Negligence Liability System at the Turn of the Century," Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 11(2) (1995), pp. 406-433, with Shawn Kantor.

5. "An Alternative View of Violence in Strikes: The Bituminous Coal Industry, 1890-1930," Labor History, 36 (Summer 1995): 426-456.

6. "Institutional Change, Compensating Differentials and Accident Risk in American Railroading, 1892-1945," with Seung-Wook Kim, Journal of Economic History 53 (December 1993), pp. 796-823.

7. "'Square Deal' or Raw Deal? Market Compensation for Workplace Disamenities, 1884-1903," with Shawn Kantor, Journal of Economic History 52 (December 1992), pp. 826-848.

8. "The Economics of Company Housing: Theoretical and Historical Perspectives from the Coal Fields, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 8 (Spring 1992): 346-365.

9. "Narrowing the Black-White Gap in Child-Literacy in 1910: The Roles of School Inputs and Family Inputs," with John H. Baskin, Review of Economics and Statistics 73 (November 1991): 725-728.

10. "Firm-Specific Evidence on Racial Wage Differentials and Workforce Segregation in Hawaii's Sugar Industry, Explorations in Economic History 26 (October 1989): 403-423, with Sumner J. LaCroix.

11. "Can Competition Among Employers Reduce Governmental Discrimination? Coal Companies and Segregated Schools in West Virginia during the Early 1900s." Journal of Law and Economics, (October 1989): 311-328.

12. "The Quality of Services in Company Towns: Sanitation in Coal Towns During the 1920s," Journal of Economic History 49 (March 1989): 125-144, with Dieter Lauszus.

13. "Debt Peonage in Post-Bellum Georgia." Explorations in Economic History 26 (April 1989): 219-236.

14. "Are Estimates of Sex Discrimination Robust? The Use of Never-Marrieds." Economic Inquiry, 27 (April 1989): 271-286, with Joseph V. Terza.

15. "Liability Rules and Accident Prevention in the Workplace: Empirical Evidence from the Early Twentieth Century." Journal of Legal Studies 16 (June 1987): 305-328.

16. "Did Coal Miners 'Owe Their Souls to the Company Store'? Theory and Evidence from the Early 1900s." Journal of Economic History 46 (December 1986): 1011-29.

17. "Workplace Safety During the Progressive Era: Fatal Accidents in Bituminous Coal Mining, 1912-1923." Explorations in Economic History 23 (July 1986): 269-298.

18. "Discrimination on Nonwage Margins: Safety in the West Virginia Coal Industry, 1906-1925." Economic Inquiry 23 (October 1985): 651-669.

19. "Segregation in Job Hierarchies: West Virginia Coal Mining, 1906-1932," Journal of Economic History 44 (September 1984): 755-774.

20. "Employment Conditions of Blacks in the Coal Mining Industry, 1900-1930," Journal of Economic History 44 (June 1984): 605-608.

21. "The Distribution of Income in the Great Depression: Preliminary State Estimates," Journal of Economic History 43 (March 1983): 217-230, with Mark Schmitz.

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

1. "Fringe Benefits in Rural America," Encyclopedia of Rural America, edited by Gary Goreham, Garland Publishing, forthcoming, 1996.)

2. "Company Housing," Encyclopedia of Housing, edited by Willem Van Vliet, (New York: Garland Publishing Inc., forthcoming).

3. "The Miners' Work Environment: Safety and Company Towns in the Early 1900s," in A Model for Industrial Solidarity? The United Mine Workers of America, 1890-1990, edited by John Laslett, (University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996), pp. 201-223.

4. "Coalition Formation and the Adoption of Workers' Compensation: The Case of Missouri, 1911-1926," in The Regulated Economy: An Historical Approach to Political Economy, edited by Claudia Goldin and Gary Libecap, (University of Chicago Press and National Bureau of Economic Research, 1994), pp. 259-297, with Shawn E. Kantor.

5. "Why Did Coal Miners Work So Few Hours? Labor-Leisure Choice in the Face of Severe Time Constraints" with William Boal and Shawn Kantor in Labour and Leisure in Historical Perspective, The Thirteenth to Twentieth Centuries, edited by Ian Blanchard, 1994.

6. "Fatal Accident Compensation Under the Negligence Liability System," in Hours of Work and Means of Payment: Proceedings of 11th International Economic History Congress (Milan: Universita Bocconi, 1994): 37-45.

7. "Clio as National Security Adviser: What Economic History Can Offer to the Study of National Defence." in Economics and National Security: Prospects for Interaction, edited by James Leitzel. (Westview Press, forthcoming 1993).

8. "An Accident of History" in Second Thoughts: The Uses of Economic History, edited by Donald McCloskey, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

9. "Separate-But-Unequal Schools and the Educational Achievement of Black and White Children, 1900-1940," in Education and Quality of the American Labor Force, Volume 5 of Advances in the Study of Entrepeneurship, Innovation, and Economic Growth. Edited by Gary Libecap. Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press, 1991, pp. 183-213.

10. "The Federal Reclamation Program: An Analysis of Rent-Seeking Behavior," in Water Resources: Bureaucracy, Property Rights, and the Environment, edited by Terry Anderson (Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Co., 1983), with Randal Rucker.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

"The Political Economy of Workers' Compensation in the Early Twentieth Century," NBER Reporter (Winter 1994/95), pp. 5-8 (with Shawn E. Kantor).

WORKING PAPERS

1. "The Adoption of Workers' Compensation in the United States, 1890-1930," with Shawn E. Kantor, revision requested by Journal of Law and Economics., NBER Working Paper No. 5840, November 1996.

2. "Precautionary Savings for Unemployment Risk in the Late Nineteenth Century."

3. "Some Propositions About Racial Discrimination in the Early 1900s."

4. "Insurance Rationing and the Origins of Workers' Compensation, with Shawn E. Kantor. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 4943.

5. "The Political Economy of Workers' Compensation Benefits, 1910-1930", with Shawn E. Kantor, revised and resubmitted to Explorations in Economic History. NBER Historical Working Paper on the Development of the American Economy No. H0095.

6. "Compromise and Conflict: The Adoption of Workers' Compensation in Minnesota, 1909-1921," with Shawn E. Kantor, September 1996, submitted to Research in Economic History.

7. "The Origins of Workers' Compensation in Ohio," with Shawn E. Kantor, submitted to Business History Review, September 1996.

8. "The Political Economy of New Deal Expenditures: A Preliminary and Exploratory Investigation," August 1996, with Shawn E. Kantor.

PROJECTS IN PROGRESS

• The Political Economy of the New Deal. This large-scale project examines the economic effects of New Deal Spending on various segments of the economy and the economic and political factors influencing the federal and state governments' allocation of New Deal funds (with Shawn E. Kantor).

• Book Manuscript, Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers' Compensation in the United States.

• The Impact of Unionization and Safety on Productivity in Coal Mining. A study of productivity in Bituminous coal mining from 1900 to 1945. With Pae Kun Choi.

BOOK REVIEWS

1. Socializing Security: Progressive-Era Economists and the Origins of American Social Policy by David A. Moss, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, forthcoming.

2. Fatal Tradeoffs: Public & Private Responsibilities for Risk, by W. Kip Viscusi, Journal of Economic Literature 32 (March 1994), pp. 131-132.

3. Mill and Mine: The CF&I in the Twentieth Century by H. Lee Scamehorn in Business History Review 67 (Winter 1994), pp. 662-664.

4. A Way of Work and a Way of Life: Coal Mining in Thurber, Texas, 1888-1926, by Marilyn D. Rhinehart in Labor History, forthcoming.

5. Coal Towns: Life, Work and Culture in Company Towns of Southern Appalachia, 1880-1960, by Crandall Shifflett, in Journal of Economic History 52 (September 1992): 730-1.

6. Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America's Bloody Coal Industry, by Priscilla Long in Journal of Economic History 51 (December 1991), pp. 991-2.

7. Legacy of the Ludlow Massacre: A Chapter in American Industrial Relations by Howard M. Gitelman in Journal of Economic History 49 (September 1989): 781-3.

8. Black Coal Miners in America by Ronald L. Lewis in The Journal of Economic History 48 (June 1988): 496-8.

9. Convicts, Coal, and the Banner Mine Tragedy by Robert David Ward and William Warren Rogers in The Journal of Economic History, 48 (March 1988): 219-20.

10. The Golden Sword: The Coming of Capitalism to the Colorado Mining Frontier by Michael Neuschatz in the Southern Economic Journal 54 (January 1988): 792-3.

11. Out of the Crucible: Black Steelworkers in Western Pennsylvania, 1875-1980 by Dennis C. Dickerson, in the Journal of Economic History 47 (June 1987): 573-4.

12. More Deadly Than War! Pacific Coast Logging, 1827-1981 by Andrew Mason Prouty in the Journal of Economic History 46 (December 1986): 1097-8.

13. The Kingdom of Coal: Work, Enterprise, and Ethnic Communities in the Mine Fields by Donald L. Miller and Richard E. Sharpless. in Journal of Economic History 46 (September 1986): 871-2.

14. Fire in the Hole: Miners and Managers in the American Coal Industry, by Curtis Seltzer, in Journal of Economic History 45 (September 1985): 755-756.

15. Capitalism, Slavery, and Republican Values, by Allen Kaufman in Georgia Historical Quarterly 58 (Spring 1984): 93-95.

16. Black Politicians and Reconstruction in Georgia, by Edmund L. Drago in Agricultural History 57 (October 1983): 470-1.