Scott Miller

Adjunct Professor

Academic Area

Areas of Expertise

Financial and Economic Crises, Business and Economic History, Political Economy, Economic Development, Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Education: BA, Vanguard University; MA, George Mason University; MA, PhD, University of Virginia; Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale School of Management

Scott Miller is Adjunct Professor of Finance at the Darden School of Business and Postdoctoral Fellow in Economic and Business History at Yale School of Management's International Center for Finance. He has received many awards and fellowships, including the Economic History Fellowship at the International Center for Jefferson Studies, the James C. Rees Entrepreneurship Fellowship at The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, the Bankard Fund for Political Economy Predoctoral Fellowship, and the John Carter Brown Library Fellowship at Brown University. He is the author or co-author of numerous scholarly papers on economic history, financial crises, and the interplay between societal and economic change. He has also written or co-written 10 case studies on financial crisis and economic development.

As an economic historian, Miller examines the development of modern economic systems, particularly during period of instability and volatility. In two different veins of research, Miller uses economic crises as a lens to isolate mechanisms of change in the early American Republic and 1840s Europe, with broad corollaries for modern systems in the first and second stages of economic development. Miller's work frames the early American republic as a resource-rich, capital- and labor-poor developing economy, which was reliant on and subject to global export markets dominated by global hegemons such as Great Britain. Likewise, 1840s Europe represents a system of interconnected economies at the brink of breakout industrialization. While not perfect stand-ins for 21st century development stories, early American and 1840s Europe serve as excellent case studies for the symbiotic relationship between institutions, factor endowments, political systems, cultural values, and contingent events in the development process.

For more information and copies of his papers and essays, visit his website. A native of Denver, Colorado, Miller received a BA from Vanguard University in 2007, MA in American History from George Mason University in 2013, and an MA and PhD in Economic History from the University of Virginia in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

Selected Publications & Works in Progress

"The First Modern Crises: The South Sea and Mississippi Bubbles in Historical Perspective," with Robert F. Bruner, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Fall 2020), 17-33.

"Britain's Great Railway Mania of the 1840s: The Roles of Politics, Money, and Liberalization," with Robert F. Bruner, Working Paper, Darden School of Business, December 2020.

"Transatlantic Monetary Shocks and the Depression of the 1780s," Working Paper, Yale School of Management, December 2020.

"The Great Crash of 1929: A 90th Anniversary Reassessment," with Robert F. Bruner, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Fall 2019), 43-55.

""Never Did I See So Universal a Frenzy": The Panic of 1791 and the Republicanization of Philadelphia," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 142, No. 1 (January 2018), 7-48.

 

Selected Awards and Fellowships

Monticello-University of Virginia Early American History Fellows, International Center for Jefferson Studies

James C. Rees Entrepreneurship Fellow, The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington

PEAES Research Fellow at the Library Company of Philadelphia

Bankard Fund for Political Economy Pre-Doctoral Fellow

Buckner W. Clay Foundation for the Humanities Research Fellow

John Carter Brown Library Associates Fellow, Brown University

Alfred D. Chandler Jr. Research Fellow, Harvard Business School

 

Case Studies

"Financial Crisis and the Revolutions of 1848 (A and B)," with Robert F. Bruner, UVA-F-1932 and UVA-F-1933 (Charlottesville: Darden Business Publishing, 2019).

"The Financial Crisis of 1847 (A and B)," with Robert F. Bruner, UVA-F-1930 and UVA-F-1931 (Charlottesville: Darden Business Publishing, 2019).

"Technical Note: The Great Industrial Revolution in Europe: 1760-1860," with Robert F. Bruner, UVA-F-1926 (Charlottesville: Darden Business Publishing, 2019).

"The South Sea Crisis and the Rise of the Bank of England (A and B)," with Robert F. Bruner, UVA-F-1820 and UVA-F-1821 (Charlottesville: Darden Business Publishing, 2018).

"1720: John Law and the Mississippi Bubble (A and B)," with Robert F. Bruner, UVA-F-1812 and UVA-F-1813 (Charlottesville: Darden Business Publishing, 2018).

"The Panic of 1791, Hamilton's Reports, and the Rise of Faction (A and B)," with Robert F. Bruner, UVA-F-1783 and UVA-F-1784 (Charlottesville: Darden Business Publishing, 2017).

"America's First 'Great Depression' of 1784-1787 and the Advent of Nationalism," with Robert F. Bruner, UVA-F-1778 ((Charlottesville: Darden Business Publishing, 2017).