Education:

• Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago, 1984
• M.A., Economics, University of Chicago,  1981
• B.A., Economics, History, and Philosophy, University of Washington,  1977

Teaching Interests:

• Economic History
• Microeconomics
• Monetary History

Research Interests:

• Early American Labor Contracting
• Early American Immigration regarding: immigrant literacy, education, occupations, anthropometrics, family structure, geographic settlement patterns.
• Market Structure, specifically Atlantic passenger shipping during the 17th-19th Centuries
• U.S. Constitutional impact on economic issues during the 18th Century
• American Monetary History, 1700-1815

Activities and Honors:

• Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
• Lerner Scholar Award, University of Delaware, 2006
• Thomas S. Berry Memorial Lecturer, University of Richmond, American Economic History, 2000
• Grants: American Philosophical Society 2003-2004 Sabbatical Fellowship,  Pew Teaching Fellow,  Economic History Association (Cole Grant), University of Delaware Financial Institutions Research Center Grant
• Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Business & Economics, University of Delaware, 1994

Recent Publications:

• "Convict Labor," and "Indentured Servitude," in Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume, Eds.,New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008
• “The Continental Dollar: How Much Was Really Issued?” Journal of Economic History, vol. 68, No. 1 pp. 283-291, March, 2008.
• “The Spoils of War: U.S. Federal Government Finance in the Aftermath of the War for Independence, 1784-1802,” in Rafael Torres Sanchez, ed., War, State and Development. Fiscal-Military States in the Eighteenth Century (Pamplona, Spain: EUNSA, 2007), pp. 133-156.
• “The Constitutional Creation of a Common Currency in the U.S., 1748-1811: Monetary Stabilization Versus Merchant Rent Seeking,” in Jurgen Nautz and Lars Jonung, eds., Conflict Potentials In Monetary Unions. Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 2007, pp. 19-50.
• "The Net Worth of the U.S. Federal Government, 1784-1802," American Economic Review-Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 97, No. 2, pp. 280-284, May, 2007.
• "Theory, Evidence, and Belief - The Colonial Money Puzzle Revisited: Reply to Michener and Wright," Econ Watch Journal, Vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 45-72, Jan. 2006.
• "The U.S. Constitution and Monetary Powers: An Analysis of the 1787 Constitutional Convention and How a Constitutional Transformation of the the Nation's Monetary System Emerged," Financial History Review, Vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 43-71, April 2006.
• "Benjamin Franklin and Colonial Money: A Reply to Michener and Wright - Yet Again," Econ Journal Watch, Vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 484-510, Sept. 2006.
• Benjamin Franklin and the Birth of a Paper Money Economy, The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 2006.
• "Does Going Greek Impair Undergraduate Academic Performance? A Case Study," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 65, no. 5, pp. 1085-1110, Nov. 2006.
• “Babes in Bondage? Debt Shifting by German Immigrants in Early America,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 1-34, Summer, 2006.
• Souls for Sale: Two German Redemptioners Come to Revolutionary America: The Life Stories of John Frederick Whitehead and Johann Carl Büttner (with Susan E. Klepp and Anne Pfaelzer de Ortiz, eds.) University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006.
• "Laborers, Contract," in John J. McCusker, ed., History of World Trade Since 1450, New York: Macmillan, 2006.
• "State 'Currencies' and the Transition to the U.S. Dollar: Reply--Including a New View from Canada," American Economic Review. Vol. 95, no. 4 , pp. 1341-1348,  Sept. 2005.
• "Nevins Panel Discussion, 11 September 2004," Journal of Economic History Vol. 65, No.2, pp. 543-547, June 2005.
• “The Circulating Medium of Exchange in Colonial Pennsylvania, 1729-1775: New Estimates of Monetary Composition, Performance, and Economic Growth,” Explorations in Economic History,Vol.41, No.4, pp. 329-360, Oct., 2004.
• "Creating the U.S.-Dollar Currency Union, 1748-1811: A Quest for Monetary Stability or a Usurpation of State Sovereignty for Personal Gain?,” American Economic Review," Vol. 93, No. 5, pp.1778-1798, Dec., 2003.