Clark University
Department of Economics
950 Main St.
Worcester, MA 01610
(508) 793-7390
jbrown@clarku.edu
 
 
Education
 
 1987     Ph. D. in Economics, University of Michigan
 
 1984     M. A., University of Michigan
 
 1977     B. A. with honors, University of Wisconsin-Madison
 
Appointments and Affiliations
 

2005-present Professor, Clark University

2005-present External Fellow, Leverhulme Center for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy, The University of Nottingham
 
2001- present Research Economist, National Bureau of Economic Research (Cohort Studies Program)
 
2001 Adjunct Associate Professor of International Economics, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
 
1993-2005 Associate Professor, Clark University
 
1995-1999, 2000-2001 Chair, Department of Economics
 
1986-1993   Assistant Professor, Clark University                                                         
European and American Economic History, European Economy, Intermediate Microeconomics, Principles of Economics, History of the Global Economy,  Statistics
 
1989-1990   Fellow, Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, Free
         University of Berlin
 
 Articles Published in Refereed Journals

 "Two Statistical Problems in the Princeton Project on the European Fertility Transition." (with Timothy Guinnane),  Economic History Review, 2006 (in press).
 
“An Empirical Assessment of the Gains from Trade: Evidence from Japan” (with Daniel Bernhofen), American Economic Review 95 (1) (March, 2005), pp. 208-225.
 
“A Direct Test of the Theory of Comparative Advantage: The Case of Japan” (with Daniel Bernhofen), Journal of Political Economy 112(1, part 1) (February, 2004), pp. 48-67.
 
“Fertility Transition in a Rural, Catholic Population: Bavaria, 1880-1910,” (with Timothy Guinnane), Population Studies, 56(1) (March, 2002), pp.35-49.
 
“Job Tenure and Labor Market Dynamics during High Industrialization: The Case of Germany before World War I” (with Gerhard Neumeier). European Review of Economic History.5(August, 2001), pp. 189-217.
 
"Imperfect Competition and Anglo-German Trade Rivalry: Markets for Cotton Textiles before 1914," Journal of Economic History. 55 (September, 1995), pp. 494-527.
 
"The Munich Polizeimeldebögen as a Source for Quantitative History" (with Timothy Guinnane and Marion Lupprian), Historical Methods 26(3) (Summer, 1993), pp. 101-118.
 
"Market Organization, Protection, and Vertical Integration: German Cotton Textiles before 1914," Journal of Economic History 52 (June, 1992), pp. 339-351.
 
"The Condition of England and the Standard of Living: The Case of Cotton Textiles, 1806-1850," Journal of Economic History 50 (September, 1990), pp. 591-614.
 
"Public Reform for Private Gain? The Case of Investments in Sanitary Infrastructure: Germany, 1880-1887," Urban Studies 26 (1989), pp. 2-12.
 
"Coping with Crisis? The Diffusion of Waterworks in Late Nineteenth-Century German Towns," Journal of Economic History 48 (June 1988), pp. 307-318.
 
Other publications
“The History of the Modern Career: Introduction” (with David Mitch and Marco van Leeuwen), in  in John C. Brown, David Mitch, and Marco Van Leeuwen, eds., Origins of the Modern Career: Career Paths and Job Stability in Europe and North America, 1850-1950, Ashgate Press (Aldershot, Hants, England, 2004), pp. 3-41.
 
“Working Class Careers: On-the-Job Experience and Career Formation in Munich, 1895-1910" (with Gerhard Neumeier) in John C. Brown, David Mitch, and Marco Van Leeuwen, eds., Origins of the Modern Career: Career Paths and Job Stability in Europe and North America, 1850-1950, Ashgate Press (Aldershot, Hants, England, 2004), pp. 259-278.
 
“Public Health,” “Sanitation,” and “Water Supply.” Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, vol.4, Oxford University Press, 2003.
 
“Infant Mortality Decline in German Towns, 1891-1912: Economics and Issues for Statistical Analysis with Some Preliminary Results” in Sally Sheard and Helen Powell, eds., The Body and the City, University of Liverpool Press (Liverpool, 2000), pp. 166-193.
 
“Wer bezahlte die hygienische Stadt? Finanzielle Aspekte der sanitären Reformen in England, USA, und Deutschland um 1910" [Who Paid for the Sanitary City?  Issues and Evidence Ca. 1910] in Jörg Vögele and Wolfgang Woelk, eds. Stadt, Krankheit, und Tod. Duncker and Humblot (Berlin, 2000), pp. 237-257.
 
Brown, John C., “Die Volkswirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika,” (with Michael Klein)  in Jürgen von Hagen, et. al. eds., Springers Handbuch der Volkswirtschaftlehre vol. 2. Springer Verlag (Berlin, 1997).
 
"Comment: Science, Health and Household Technology: The Effect of the Pasteur Revolution," in Timothy F. Bresnahan and Robert J. Gordon, eds., The Economics of New Goods University of Chicago Press (Chicago, 1997), pp. 201-205.
 
"Reforming the Urban Environment: Sanitation, Housing, and Government Intervention in Germany, 1870-1910," Journal of Economic History 49 (June, 1989), pp. 450-452.
 
 

Research Papers

“Bringing the Campus to the Community: An Examination of the Clark University Park Partnership after Ten Years”

“On the Search for Empirical Regularities of the Strong Law of Comparative Advantage” (with Daniel Bernhofen and Laura Bernhofen)
 
“Income, Sanitation, Sharing, and the Weather: Infant Mortality in Turn of the Century Munich”
 
“The Fertility Transition in Munich: A First Look” (with Timothy Guinnane)
 
“Legislating the Healthy and Moral Home: Housing Market Intervention before World War I”
 

"Productivity Growth and Protection in a Follower Country: German Cotton Textiles,1857-1913"

“Income, Transit, and Urban Structure: Munich before World War I”

Selected Recent Presentations

“Bringing the Campus to the Community: An Examination of the Clark University Park Partnership after Ten Years” Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Seminar on Large Landholders, October, 2006.

"Productivity Growth and Protection in a Follower Country: German Cotton Textiles,1857-1913," University of Connecticut Department of Economics Seminar, March, 2006.

“On the Search for Empirical Regularities of the Strong Law of Comparative Advantage,” Hitotsubashi Macroeconomics Seminar, Tokyo, June, 2004.
 
“Income, Sanitation, Sharing, and the Weather: Infant Mortality in Turn of the Century Munich” National Bureau of Economic Research Joint Meeting of the Early Indicators Group and the Cohort Studies Group, Salt Lake City, April, 2004.
 
“Estimating the Comparative Advantage Gains to Trade”, Humboldt University in Berlin (2002) and Cliometrics Society Conference, 2003.
 
“The Fertility Transition in Munich: A First Look” presented at the Yale University Economic History workshop, Population Association of America, the Canadian Economic History Network meeting, and the NBER Cohort Studies Group, 2002.
 
“Job Stability among Migrants to Munich before 1910" presented to the Luxembourg Conference and Job and Career Security in Historical Perspective, 2001 and the International Economic History Congress in Buenos Aires, 2002.
 
“On the Empirical Validity of the General Law of Comparative Advantage: the Case of Japan”
(with Daniel Bernhofen) presented to the Harvard Economic History Workshop, the Wesleyan University Economics Seminar, 2001 and the Japan Economic Seminar at Columbia University, 2002.
 
“Job Tenure and Labor Market Dynamics during High Industrialization: The Case of Germany before World War I” (with Gerhard Neumeier) presented to the First Conference on German Cliometrics in 1999.
 
“Technological Change and Productivity Growth in a Follower Country: German Cotton Textiles,1857-1913" presented to the Conference “Cotton as a Prime Mover in Global Industrialization” in Manchester(1997) and the University of Munich(1998) and the Washington Area Economic History Workshop (1999).
 
Book Reviews
 
Rainer Fremdling, Technologischer Wandel und internationaler Handel im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert: Die Eisenindustrie in Großbritannien, Belgien, Frankreich und Deutschland , Business History Review (Autumn, 1989), pp. 708-710.
 
Shirley Fitzgerald, Rising Damp: Sydney, 1870-90, Journal of Economic History 50(March, 1990), pp. 208-210.
 
Joel Tarr and Gabriel Dupuy, eds., Technology and the Rise of the Networked City, Journal of Economic History 50 (March, 1990), pp. 255-256.
 
Paul Bairoch, Cities and Economic Development: From the Dawn of History to the Present, Journal of Economic Literature 28 (March, 1990), pp. 83-85.
 
Bradford Luckingham, Phoenix: The History of a Southwestern Metropolis , Journal of Economic History, 51 (December, 1991), pp. 992-993.
 
Karlheinz Wiegmann, Textileindustrie und Staat in Westfalen 1914-1933. Journal of Economic History, 54 (June, 1994).
 
Walter Bauernfeind, Materielle Grundstrukturen im Spätmittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit: Preisentwicklung und Agrarkonjunktur am Nürnberger Getreidemarkt von 1339 bis 1670.   Journal of Economic History, 55 (March, 1995).
 
Fellowships and Grants
 
Short-Term Research Grant, German Academic Exchange Service(DAAD), Summer, 1988
 
Fellow, Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, Academic year 1989-1990, Social Science Research Council and Free University of Berlin
 
National Institute of Child Health and Development Research Grant for Project "Migration and Urban Fertility: Munich, 1850-1910," 1995-1998. Direct costs $134,000.
 
Henry Leir Center in Luxembourg of Clark University, Grant for a the “2001 Luxembourg Conference on Employment Security and Career Mobility in Historical Perspective,” planning and actual conference was $12,000.
 
Study Visit Grant, German Academic Exchange Service(DAAD), Summer, 2002
 
Study Visit Grant, Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC) to Japan, Spring, 2004.
 
National Science Foundation, "Empirical Tests of Neo-Classical Trade Theory Using a Natural Experiment: The Case of Japan."(co-P.I. with Daniel M. Bernhofen). 2005-2008 Direct costs $190,000.
 
Ph.D. committees chaired
Jon Boulet, Was the Austro-Hungarian Empire an Optimal Currency Area? (2001)
 
Hamza Al-Salem, The Demand for International Reserves among Energy-Exporting Countries (2004)
 
Current Research Projects
 
Examining the reasons for the competitive position of the German cotton textile industry during the period prior to 1914 in response to technological change, vertical integration, and changes in tariff and labor market policies.
 
Developing data set of 5,000 Munich couples in a joint project with Timothy Guinnane(Yale) to study the decline in German fertility, 1850-1910.  Research funded by National Institute of Child Health and Development, 1995-1998.
 
Synthesizing research on mortality decline and public intervention for a comparative study of Germany and England: Markets and Mortality: Public Policy and Private Choices in Germany, 1850-1914. Proposal is accepted by Princeton University Press.
 
Collaborating in a research project with Daniel Bernhofen that analyzes the impact of the opening up of Japan to international trade during the mid-19th century.
 
Professional Activities
 
Member of the American Economic Association, Economic History Association, Cliometric Society, Social Science History Association, Population Association of America
 
Referee for the Journal of Economic History, Economic History Review, Explorations in Economic History and Population Studies
 
Member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Economic History (1996-2000)
 
Chair of Program Committee, 1998 Conference of Economic History Association
 
Grant reviewer for the Leverhulme Trust (United Kingdom) and the National Science Foundation
 
Discussant at the annual meetings of the Economic History Association, Social Science History Association, Cliometric Society, and NBER Conferences.
 
Post-tenure review for the University of Utah
 
University Service
College Board (1993-1994)
Chair of the Department of Economics (1995-1999); Acting Chair (2000-2001)
Academic Convocation Committee  (1997-2000, Chair in 1998-1999)
Faculty Compensation Committee (1999-2001, Chair in 2000-2001)
Graduate Board (1998-2001, Chair in 1999-2000)
Committee on Personnel (2002-2005, Chair in 2004-2005)
Faculty Steering (1999-2000 and 2004-2005)
Academic Affairs Committee of the Trustees (2004-2005)