Shawn Kantor

Biography

Shawn Kantor, Ph.D., earned his doctorate in Social Science from the California Institute of Technology in 1991. Dr. Kantor’s current research explores the determinants of regional economic growth. His most recent work examines the role that knowledge spillovers play in contributing to productivity gains shared more generally in a local area. One avenue of this research considers the impact that public R&D and research universities have on regional economic growth, both historically and today.

Dr. Kantor is the author of numerous books and articles and his research has been extensively supported by external granting agencies, primarily the NSF. His book Politics and Property Rights: The Closing of the Open Range in the Postbellum South (University of Chicago Press, 1998) examines the transformation of property rights to land in the South after the Civil War. His co-authored book A Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers’ Compensation (University of Chicago Press, 2000) analyzes the factors that contributed to the introduction of the first major social insurance program in the United States. The book was awarded the TIAA-CREF Institute Certificate of Excellence for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security and the Richard A. Lester Prize for the Outstanding Book in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations. An article on the political economy of compulsory state workers’ compensation insurance systems won the Economic History Association’s 1997 Arthur H. Cole Prize for the outstanding article published in the Journal of Economic History. Dr. Kantor, in collaboration with Price Fishback (University of Arizona) and other co-authors, examined the economic consequences of the New Deal. The research has measured the impact of New Deal spending on a variety of important economic and social outcomes such as retail consumption, migration, infant mortality, employment and wages, and crime.

Education

Ph.D. in Social Science from California Institute of Technology in 1991.

Professional Experience

Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research.

Research Activities

Specializations: Economics of Innovation; Regional/Urban Economics; U.S. Economic History; Political Economy; Public Economics

Selected Publications

“Moonshot: Public R&D and Economic Growth” (with Alexander Whalley). Conditionally accepted at the American Economic Review.

“Research Proximity and Productivity: Long-Term Evidence from Agriculture,” Journal of Political Economy, 127 (April 2019), pp. 819-54 (with Alexander Whalley).

“Knowledge Spillovers from Research Universities: Evidence from Endowment Value Shocks,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 96 (March 2014), pp. 171-88 (with Alexander Whalley).