Fishback Named to the Society of Fellows of the Economic History Association

Price Fishback, Thomas R. Brown Professor of Economics in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, has been named to the Society of Fellows of the Economic History Association. The Society honors those who have made substantial contributions to the field of economic history. This inaugural class is composed of the living past presidents of the Economic History Association.

“As an economic historian, my goal is to describe the history of the economy using economics, statistics and narrative sources,” says Fishback, whose research has focused on the American economy from 1890-1950.

After joining the Eller College in 1990, Fishback studied the politics and economics associated with the introduction of workers’ compensation laws. To the surprise of Fishback and co-researchers who expected to find that workers’ compensation laws were a major victory of workers over employers, they found that employers, workers and insurers all gained from the introduction of the laws. Since then, Fishback’s research has turned to the politics and economics of the Great Depression, the New Deal and World War II. His current research explores the rise and fall of the mortgage industry in the 1920s and 1930s, labor legislation of the Progressive Era and the economics of the Great Depression, New Deal and World War II.

“I have been blessed to have so many great colleagues and students, and we’ve had a lot of fun working on these projects,” says Fishback. “As a result, the research has been more like enjoying a hobby than working. These co-researchers have been a large part of why I received this honor.”

Fishback earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Washington in 1983. In addition to recently serving as president of the Economic History Association, he is 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.