I am a Distinguished Professor of Economics at UC-Davis, and a Visiting Professor in the Economic History Department at LSE
My current project is a book manuscript on the nature and implications of the determination of social outcomes in England 1680-2021, based on a complete lineage of a set of 402,000 English people across this interval. The provisional title is For Whom the Bell Curve Tolls: Genetics and Social Life, England 1680-2021. This will form the third of a Hemingway punned trilogy of books about the interconnection of modern growth, selection pressures in the long Malthusian era, and the implications for social functioning.
My talk on some of the material for the book to the Glasgow University Applied Economics Seminar, scheduled for Feb 17, has been indefinitely "postponed" by order of the Dean of the Business School, Professor John Finch. The reference to the "bell curve" in the title was an unpardonable provocation to many of the Glasgow Faculty. Here is the link to the letter of protest sent to the Principal by 110 faculty, and the response of the Principal, which is to only allow me to speak if I change the title of my working paper, deemed "offensive." Here is the link to the working paper I would have discussed so that you can judge for yourselves if the material so offended honest enquiry as to be denied a platform.
For a list of my publications see - Google Scholar
We
have one of the strongest groups of economic historians in
the world here. If you are interested in Economic
History at Davis check the web sites of my colleagues
Katherine Eriksson, Peter Lindert, Chris Meissner, Alan Olmstead, and Santiago Perez.
I grew
up in Scotland, where one of my classmates at Holy Cross
High was Donnie Burns, 14-time World
Professional Latin American Dance Champion. My
grandparents came from Ireland to work in the coal mines
and steel mills of the Clyde Valley, as part of the great
diaspora of the Irish triggered by Ireland’s failure to
industrialize in the nineteenth century.
My
path from the rain of the West of Scotland to the sunshine
of Northern California was by way of degrees at King’s
College, Cambridge, and Harvard, and faculty positions at
Stanford and Michigan.
My office is 1137 Social Sciences and Humanities
Building. To contact me stop by, call 530-574-7188,
or send an e-mail.
