The Dissertations of Doctors Law, Johnson, and Priest: 2003 Allan Nevins Prize Competition of The Economic History Association

The dissertations in the Allan Nevins prize competition have often been read as tea leaves to discern the future direction of the profession. Collectively, those submitted covered diverse subjects, as represented in this panel by topics ranging from colonial currency to food safety regulation to World War II antidiscrimination legislation. The time-periods covered in the works were also spread broadly, although none centered in the nineteenth century, which has traditionally dominated the attention of economic historians of North America. The pivotal period for Claire Priest is the 1730s and 1740s, for Marc Law the 1900s and 1910s, and for Ryan Johnson the 1930s and early 1940s. The new works should serve to widen our time-horizons. Another feature unifying these dissertations is that all three study (to one degree or another) the effects of policies and their enforcement on the economy. We learn of the balance between the courts and the regulators and of the gaps between the stated goals of legislation and the results actually achieved.