John Joseph Wallis

Professor of Economics

Biography

Professor Wallis received his PhD in economics from the University of Washington in 1981. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University Chicago, he came to the University of Maryland Department of Economics in 1983. He has been a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1989. Professor Wallis is an economic historian who specializes in the public finance of American governments, constitutional development, and more generally on the institutional development of governments and economies. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in American Economic History (Economics 611 and 311), an undergraduate course on Economic History and Modern Development (Economics 412) and a graduate class on the theory of the state (Economics 613). Recent publications include "Constitutions, Corporations, and Corruption." Journal of Economic History, March 2005, "The Concept of Systematic Corruption in American History" in Glaeser and Goldin, ed. Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America"s Economic History, University of Chicago Press, 2006, and Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History, with Douglass North and Barry Weingast, Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Areas of Interest:
Economic History: public finance of American governments, the institutional development of governments and economies

Working Papers

Date	Title
September 1, 2007	Limited Access Orders in the Developing World: A New Approach to the Problems of Development with North, Douglass C.; Webb, Stephen B; Weingast, Barry World Bank Policy Reseqarch Working Paper, September 2007, WPS4359.
April 1, 2007	Stones, Bones, and States with Steckel, Richard
December 1, 2006	A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History with Weingast, Barry; North, Douglass NBER Working Paper, w12795, December 2006.
November 1, 2005	The Market for American State Government Bonds in Britain and the United States, 1830 to 1843 EHR
May 1, 2005	Equilibrium Impotence: Why the States and Not the American National Government Financed Infrastructure Investment in the Antebellum Era with Weingast, B. R.
March 1, 2005	Constitutions, Corporations, and Corruption: American States and Constitutional Change, 1842 to 1852 Journal of Economic History, March 2005
January 1, 2004	American Government and the Promotion of Economic Development In the National Era, 1790 to 1860
January 1, 2004	Government Finances and Employment Historical Statistics of the United States, Carter, Gartner, Haines, Olmstead, Sutch, and Wright eds. Cambridge University Press, 2004 (?).
January 1, 2004	Sovereign Default and Repudiation: The Emerging-Market Debt Crisis in U.S. States, 1839-1843 2004
July 1, 2003	Can the New Deal's Three R's be Rehabilitated? A Program-by-Program, County-by-County Analyis. with Kantor, Shawn; Fishback, Price V. Explorations in Economic History, July 2003.
July 1, 2003	Politics, Relief, and Reform: The Transformation of America's Social Welfare System during the New Deal with Fishback, P.; Kantor, S. Explorations in Economic History
July 1, 2003	The Property Tax as a Coordinating Device: Financing Indiana's Mammoth Internal Improvement System, 1835 to 1842 Explorations in Economic History
January 1, 2003	The Public Promotion of Private Interest (Groups) Collective Choice: Essays in Honor of Mancur Olson, Jac Heckelman and Dennis Coates, ed. Springer-Verlag, 2003.
January 1, 2002	Market Augmenting Government? The State and the Corporation in 19th Century America Omar Azfar and Charles Cadwell, ed. Market-Augmenting Government: The Institutional Foundations for Prosperity. University of Michigan Press, 2002
April 1, 2001	The Political Economy of New Deal Spending, Yet Again: A Reply to Fleck. Explorations in Economic History, April 2001.
January 1, 2001	A History of the Property Tax in America Property Taxation and Local Government Finance, Wallace E. Oates, ed. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2001.
January 1, 2001	What Caused the Crisis of 1839? NBER Working Paper, 2001.
January 1, 2000	American Government Finance in the Long Run: 1790 to 1990 Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2000.
January 1, 2000	State Constitutional Reform and the Structure of Government Finance in the Nineteenth Century J. Heckelman, J. Moorhouse, and R. Whaples, (eds) Public Choice Interpretations of American Economic History, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston. (2000)
January 1, 1999	Early American Federalism and Economic Development, 1790-1840 Environmental and public economics: essays in honor of Wallace E. Oates, edited by Portnoy, Schwab and Panagariya. Edward Elgar, 1999.
April 1, 1998	The Political Economy of New Deal Spending, Revisited, With and Without Nevada Explorations in Economic History, 35, 140-170, April 1998.
January 1, 1998	The Anatomy of a Sovereign Debt Crisis. with Sylla, Richard Japan and the World Economy. (1998)
January 1, 1998	The Impact of the New Deal on American Federalism with Oates, Wallace Bordo, Goldin, and White, ed. The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century, NBER, University of Chicago Press, 1998.
January 1, 1997	Railroads and Property Taxes with Heckelman, Jac Explorations in Economic History, 34, pp. 77-99, January 1997.
January 1, 1997	What Determines the Allocation of Grants to the States? 1997, NBER Working Paper on Historical Factors in Long Run Growth, #90.
December 1, 1994	Integrating Institutional Change and Technical Change in Economic History: A Transaction Cost Approach with North, Douglass C. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 150, pp. 609-624, December 1994.
January 1, 1994	Government Growth, Income Growth and Economic Growth John James and Mark Thomas, eds. Capitalism in Context, University of Chicago Press, 1994.
January 1, 1994	The Interaction of Taxation and Regulation in Nineteenth Century Banking with Sylla, Richard; Legler, John Claudia Goldin and Gary Libecap, eds., The Regulated Economy: An Historical Approach to Political Economy, NBER, University of Chicago Press, 1994.
January 1, 1991	The Great Depression: Have We Learned Our Lessons? Second Thoughts: The Uses of American Economic History, in Donald N. McCloskey ed., Oxford University Press, 1991.
January 1, 1991	The Political Economy of New Deal Fiscal Federalism Economic Inquiry, 29, pp. 510-524, 1991.
March 1, 1989	Towards a Positive Economic Theory of Institutional Change Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 145, pp. 98-112, March 1989.
January 1, 1989	Employment in the Great Depression: New Data and Hypothesis Explorations in Economic History, 26, 45-72, January, 1989.
January 1, 1988	Does Economic Sclerosis Set in With Age? An Empirical Study of the Olson Hypothesis with Oates, Wallace Kyklos, 41, pp. 397-417, 1988.
January 1, 1988	Should Transactions Costs Be Subtracted From Gross National Product? with North, D.C. Journal of Economic History, 48, pp. 651-654, September 1988.
January 1, 1988	U.S. City Finances and the Growth of Government, 1850-1902 with Legler, John B.; Sylla, Richard Journal of Economic History, 48, pp. 347-356, June 1988.
August 1, 1987	Employment, Politics, and Economic Recovery in the Great Depression Review of Economics and Statistics, 59, pp. 516-520, August, 1987.
January 1, 1987	Banks and State Public Finance in the New Republic: The United States, 1790-1860 with Legler, John B.; Sylla, Richard Journal of Economic History, 47, pp. 391-403, June 1987.
January 1, 1986	Measuring the Transaction Sector in the American Economy: 1870 to 1970 with North, Douglass C. Stanley Engerman and Robert Gallman, eds., Long Term Factors in American Economic Growth, Studies in Income and Wealth, vol. 51, University of Chicago Press, 1986.
January 1, 1986	Why 1933? The Origins and Timing of National Government Growth, 1933 to 1940. Robert Higgs, ed. The Emerging Modern Political Economy, JAI Press, 1986.
March 1, 1984	The Birth of the Old Federalism: Financing the New Deal Journal of Economic History, 44, pp. 139-159, March 1984.
May 1, 1982	American Government Expenditures: An Historical Perspective with North, Douglass C. American Economic Review, 72, pp. 336-340, May 1982.
March 1, 1981	Private Relief and Public Unemployment in the Great Depression with Benjamin, Daniel K. Journal of Economic History, 41, pp. 97-102, March 1981.
--	The Concept of Systematic Corruption in American Political and Economic History Edward Glaeser and Claudia Goldin, ed. Corruption and Reform. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Teaching - Spring 2012

Course	Syllabus	WWW
ECON 312: American Economics After the Civil War
ECON 613: Origins and Development of Capitalism
ECON 808: Workshop on Macroeconomics and Growth: Workshop in Applied Economics
ECON 848: Workshop in International Development, and Comparative Economics

Teaching - Fall 2011

Course	Syllabus	WWW
ECON 311: American Economic History Before the Civil War
ECON 878: Workshop in Labor Economics

Teaching - Spring 2011

Course	Syllabus	WWW
ECON 312: American Economics After the Civil War
ECON 611: Seminar in American Economic Development
ECON 808: Workshop on Macroeconomics and Growth: Workshop in Applied Economics
ECON 848: Workshop in International Development, and Comparative Economics

Teaching - Fall 2010

Course	Syllabus	WWW
ECON 311: American Economic History Before the Civil War
ECON 878: Workshop in Labor Economics

Teaching - Spring 2010

Course	Syllabus	WWW
ECON 412: Economic History and Modern Development
ECON 808: Workshop on Macroeconomics and Growth: Workshop in Applied Economics

Teaching - Fall 2009

Course	Syllabus	WWW
ECON 311: American Economic History Before the Civil War
ECON 888: Workshop in Comparative Institutional Economics

Teaching - Spring 2009

Course	Syllabus	WWW
ECON 412: Economic History and Modern Development
ECON 888: Workshop in Comparative Institutional Economics

Teaching - Fall 2008

Course	Syllabus	WWW
ECON 311: American Economic History Before the Civil War
ECON 611: Seminar in American Economic Development

Tydings Hall 3135

3105 Tydings Hall
Department of Economics
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
Phone: 301-405-3552
Fax: 301-405-3542

Office Hours:
Monday
3:30 pm-4:00 pm

Wednesday
1:00 pm-1:45 pm