Price Fishback, Ph.D.

Price Fishback is an economic historian who performs research on the political economy of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s, labor markets and regulation in the Progressive Era and the American economy during World War II. His work is known for its data-intensive approach, has been financed by numerous National Science Foundation grants, and has appeared in many peer-reviewed articles, literature surveys and books.

Fishback's book "Soft Coal, Hard Choices" shows that both competition among employers and collective bargaining helped protect coal miners against exploitation in the early 1900s. His award-winning book with Shawn Kantor, "A Prelude to the Welfare State," shows how large groups of employers, workers, and insurers benefited from workers' compensation systems. His surveys in the Journal of Economic Literature show that support for reforms by progressive employers influenced new labor laws proposed by laborers (1998) and that New Deal relief, public works, and mortgage refinancing programs had strong positive effects on multiple socio-economic outcomes, while the agricultural programs helped large farmers but at the expense of farm tenants, croppers, and workers (2017). He is the lead author of “Government and the American Economy: A New History,” which summarizes modern economic history research on the topic for the general reader.  

Price has received more than a dozen teaching awards and has been heavily involved in the training of more than 100 Ph.D. recipients.  He has served in several leadership roles in the leading economic history societies. He is a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research and has had affiliations with several other organizations and foreign universities.