Research

Publications

• “Ghost Towns and Big Cities: Historical Mining and Economic Activity in the American West” (w/ Jason Dunn), forthcoming in The Journal of Economic History.
• “Debt Restrictions and Municipal Indebtedness in American Cities: Evidence from the Roaring Twenties” (w/ Samara Gunter), Journal of Institutional Economics, 18 (2022): 937-952. [link]
• “Firms, Fires, and Firebreaks: The Impact of the 1906 San Francisco Disaster on Business Agglomeration,” Regional Science and Urban Economics, 88 (2021): 103659. [link]
  • Media: Densely Speaking: Conversations About Cities, Economics & Law (October 23, 2023).
• “Debt and Taxes: Fiscal Strain and U.S. City Budgets during the Great Depression,” Explorations in Economic History, 76 (2020): 101328. [link]
• “Clean Slate: Land-Use Changes in San Francisco after the 1906 Disaster,” Explorations in Economic History, 65 (2017): 1-16. [link]
  • Awarded the 2018 Larry Neal Prize for best article in EEH.
  • Media: Marginal Revolution (April 21, 2017).
• “Razing San Francisco: The 1906 Disaster as a Natural Experiment in Urban Redevelopment,” Journal of Urban Economics, 89 (2015): 48-61. [link]
  • Media: LSE USAPP (December 15, 2015); Skynomics Blog (October 2, 2018).

Working Papers

• “Municipal Socialism in the United States, 1900-1940” (w/ Tate Twinam), new draft appearing soon

Work in Progress

• “An Economic History of Large Fires in American Cities”