The Man With the History up His Sleeves
urbs et orbis
Stephen T. Ziliak Professor of Economics Roosevelt University Department of Economics College of Arts and Sciences 430 S. Michigan Ave Chicago, IL 60605 email: sziliak@roosevelt.edu |
Education
B.A., Economics, Indiana University, 1986 Ph.D. Certificate, Rhetorics of Inquiry, University of Iowa, 1996 Ph.D., Economics, University of Iowa, 1996 Dissertation: Essays on Self-Reliance: The United States in the Era of “Scientific Charity” Dissertation Advisor: Deirdre N. McCloskey
Languages: English (native), some Spanish, some Latin (Summa cum Laude, National Latin Exam, 1979).
Research Fields
Welfare & Poverty Economic History, Rhetoric, & Philosophy History and Philosophy of Science and Statistics
Teaching Fields
Various
Academic Appointments
Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry (University of Iowa): Resident Scholar, 1993-1996. University of Iowa: Instructor, 1994. Bowling Green State University: Assistant Professor, 1996-2001 (on leave: Fall 1999-Spring 2001). Emory University: Visiting Assistant Professor, 1999-2003. Georgia Institute of Technology: Visiting Assistant Professor, 2000-2003. Roosevelt University: Associate Professor, 2003-2006. Roosevelt University: Professor, 2006-present.
Recent Honors
Helen Potter Award for Best Paper in Social Economics (2002): “Pauper Fiction in Economic Science: `Paupers in Almshouses’ and the Odd Fit of Oliver Twist,” Review of Social Economy. Awarded by the Association for Social Economics.
Associate Editor, Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to the Present (The Millennial Edition).
Contributor, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (Gale, Second edition).
Board of Editors, Journal of Economic Methodology (1997-2007); Econ Journal Watch (2003- ); Review of Social Economy (2007- ).
“Faculty Member of the Year,” Georgia Institute of Technology, Student Government Association, 2002
“Most Intellectual Professor” (Dean Griffin Faculty Superlative Award), Georgia Institute of Technology, Office of Dean of Students, Omicron Delta Kappa, Presidents’ Council, Tech Ambassadors, Student Council, and Student Government Association, 2003
Board of Advisors, Academia Vitae, the first private university in Dutch history. Deventer, The Netherlands (Founder and Dean: Arjo Klamer).
Plenary Lecture, "The Culture of Statistical Significance," American Economic Association meetings, San Diego, Jan. 2004
Plenary Lecture, Association for Heterodox Economics, University of Leeds, UK, 2004.
Invited Lecture, Post-Graduate Workshop in Heterodox Economics, Association for Heterodox Economics, University of Manchester, UK, 2005.
Plenary Lecture, McCloskey's The Rhetoric of Economics--Twenty Years Later, Rhetoric and Economics Conference, Milliken University, 2005.
Plenary Lecture, The Cult of Statistical Significance, Rhetoric and Economics Conference, Milliken University, 2005.
Who's Who in the World
Who's Who in America
Who's Who Among America's Teachers and Educators
Books
1. (Editor and contributor) Measurement and Meaning in Economics: The Essential Deirdre McCloskey (Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar, 2001); paperback, January 2003.
Economists of the Twentieth Century Series.
2. (Lead author) The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives (University of Michigan Press, forthcoming 2007). With Deirdre McCloskey.
How statistical significance testing is causing a loss of jobs, justice, ecology, and even human lives.
3. The Economic Conversation (London, UK: Palgrave-MacMillan, forthcoming 2007). With Arjo Klamer and Deirdre McCloskey.
A comprehensive introduction to micro and macro, employing Socratic dialogue, historical fiction, and alternative economic perspectives.
Articles & Book Chapters
4. "The Standard Error of Regressions” (with D. N. McCloskey), Journal of Economic Literature 34 (March 1996), pp. 97-114.
Reprinted: Chp. 17 in S. T. Ziliak, ed., Measurement and Meaning in Economics: The Essential Deirdre McCloskey (Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar, 2001); Reprinted: in John B. Davis, ed., Recent Developments in Economic Methodology (Edward Elgar, 2005); Reprinted: in Andrew Lo, ed., Financial Econometrics (Edward Elgar, 2007).
<< cited by RePEc [Research Papers in Economics] as the 4th most frequently downloaded article in the economics profession, Winter 2004. The RePEc database contains over 176,000 published journal articles >>
5. “The End of Welfare and the Contradiction of Compassion,” The Independent Review I (1, Spring 1996), pp. 55-73
6. “Kicking the Malthusian Vice: Lessons from the Abolition of `Welfare’ in the Late Nineteenth Century,” Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance 37 (2, Summer 1997), pp. 449-68.
Published in a special issue on the comparative histories of welfare reform, 19th and 20th century.
7. “D. N. McCloskey and the Rhetoric of a Scientific Economics,” pp. ix-xxvi, in S. T. Ziliak, ed., Measurement and Meaning in Economics (2001).
8. “What are Models for?” In Warren J. Samuels and Jeff E. Biddle, eds., Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 19-A (Elsevier Press, 2001), pp. 149-159.
9. (Lead article) “Pauper Fiction in Economic Science: `Paupers in Almshouses’ and the Odd Fit of Oliver Twist,” Review of Social Economy 55 (2, June 2002), pp. 159-181.
10. “Haiku Economics,” Rethinking Marxism 14 (September 2002), pp. 111-112.
11. “Some Tendencies of Social Welfare and the Problem of Interpretation,” Cato Journal 21 (3, Winter 2002), pp. 499-513.
12. “Economic History and the Rebirth of Respectable Characters,” Post-Autistic Economics Review (December 2002). http://www.paecon.net; reprinted: E. Fullbrook, ed., Real World Economics, Anthem Press, 2007.
<< cited as one of the “Important Texts” of the Post-Autistic Economics Movement, www.paecon.net >>
13. “Freedom to Exchange and the Rhetoric of Economic Correctness.” In Warren J. Samuels and Jeff E. Biddle, eds., Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 21-A (Elsevier Press, 2003), pp. 331-41.
14. “Palimpsest and ‘The New Economic Methodology.’” In Warren J. Samuels and Jeff E. Biddle, eds., Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 21-A (Elsevier Press, 2003), pp. 194-207.
15. “The Significance of the Economics Research Paper.” In Edward Fullbrook, ed., A Guide to What’s Wrong with Economics (Anthem Press 2004), Chp. 21, pp. 223-236.
16. “Self-Reliance Before the Welfare State: Evidence from the Charity Organization Movement in the United States,” Journal of Economic History 64 (2, June 2004): 433-461.
17. (Lead author/lead article) “Size Matters: The Standard Error of Regressions in the American Economic Review,” Journal of Socio-Economics 33 (5, December 2004), pp. 527-546. With Deirdre McCloskey.
Published in a symposium on Ziliak-McCloskey research concerning the use and abuse of significance testing in economics and other disciplines. Reprinted simultaneously in Econ Journal Watch (www.econjournalwatch.org).
<< cited by Science Direct as the 2nd most frequently downloaded paper in the Journal of Socio-Economics, Fall 2005 >>
18. (Lead author) “Significance Redux,” Journal of Socio-Economics 33 (5, December 2004), pp. 665-675. With Deirdre McCloskey.
Replies to published comments by Clive Granger, Graham Elliott, Joel Horowitz, Edward Leamer, Tony O’Brien, Erik Thorbecke, Jeffrey Wooldridge, and Arnold Zellner.
19. (Lead author) “Reply to Thomas Schelling: Size Matters,” Econ Journal Watch 1 (3, December 2004), pp. 540-2. With Deirdre McCloskey. www.econjournalwatch.org
20. (Lead author) “Reply to Robert Gelfond: Size Matters,” Econ Journal Watch 1 (3, December 2004), pp. 544-5. With Deirdre McCloskey. www.econjournalwatch.org
21. “Poor Law—United States.” Pp. 274-7 in John M. Herrick and Paul H. Stuart, eds., Encyclopedia of Social Welfare in the United States (New York: Sage Publications, 2004).
22. “Why I Left Alan Greenspan To Seek Economic Significance: The Confessions of an α-Male,” Rethinking Marxism 17 (1, January 2005), pp. 45-58.
23. (Inaugural article in a new series) “On Autobiography: Recommended Readings (and Re-readings) in Economic History.” Published on EH-Teach, an on-line publication of the Economic History Association, September 2005.
24. “Haiku Economics, No. 2,” Rethinking Marxism 17 (4, October 2005), pp. 567-9.
25. “Heterodox Economics and the Resurrection of Economic Significance,” in John T. Harvey and Robert Garnett, Jr., eds., Heterodox Economics, University of Michigan Press, forthcoming 2005.
26. “It’s your Birthday, Welfare: 400 Years of Happy Frustration,” Barron’s (Invited piece; forthcoming). 2,200 words.
27. “Deirdre McCloskey,” in Ross B. Emmett, ed., The Elgar Companion to the Chicago School of Economics (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2005).
28. “Public Assistance: Colonial Times to the 1920s” (with the assistance of Joan Underhill Hannon). A chapter in the millennial edition of Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2006). Eds. Susan B. Carter, Richard Sutch, et al.
29. “Signifying Nothing: Reply to Hoover and Siegler.” With Deirdre McCloskey, Journal of Economic Methodology. March 2008. SEE IT NOW
30. “Positive Social Science,” in William Darity, Jr., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2nd Edition, 2007.
31. “Normative Social Science,” in William Darity, Jr., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2nd Edition, 2007.
32. “Rhetoric,” in William Darity, Jr., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2nd Edition, 2007.
33. "The Economic Foundation of 'Student's' t," SEE IT NOW
34. "Life After Samuelson's Economics: Changing the Textbooks." With Arjo Klamer and Deirdre McCloskey. Post Autistic Economics Review. May 2007.
35. "Guinnessometrics: The Economic Foundation of 'Student's' t, Journal of Economic Perspectives, forthcoming 2008. SEE IT NOW
36. "The Great Skew: R. A. Fisher and the Copyright History of 'Student's' t. SEE IT NOW
Book Reviews
37. Review of Paul A. Jargowsky’s Poverty and Place: Ghettos, Barrios, and the American City (1997), Journal of Economic History 58(1), March 1998, pp. 264-266.
38. Review of Ada F. Haynes’ Poverty in Central Appalachia (1997), Journal of Economic History 58(1), March 1998, pp. 264-266.
39. Review of Irwin Unger’s The Best of Intentions: The Triumph and Failure of the Great Society Under Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon (1996), Economic History Association, EH-Net, October 1998.
40. Review of James L. Payne’s Overcoming Welfare: Expecting More from the Poor and from Ourselves (New York: Basic Books, 1998), The Independent Review IV (1, Summer 1999), pp. 144-7.
41. Review of Michael J. Graetz and Jerry L. Mashaw’s True Security: Rethinking American Social Insurance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), Journal of Economic History (June 2000).
42. Review of Gary R. Lowe and P. Nelson Reid’s The Professionalization of Poverty: Social Work and the Poor in the Twentieth Century (Hawthorne: Aldine de Gruyter, 1999), Journal of Economic History (Fall 2000).
43. Review of A. B. Atkinson’s The Economic Consequences of Rolling Back the Welfare State (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999), Journal of Economic Literature 39 (1, March 2001), pp. 144-6.
44. Review of Dwight B. Billings and Kathleen M. Blee’s The Road to Poverty:king of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), Journal of Interdisciplinary History 32 (1, Summer 2001), pp. 144-6.
45. Review of David Hammack’s, ed., Making the NonProfit Sector in the United States: A Reader (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), Journal of Economic History (March 2001).
46. Review of Hugo A. Keuzenkamp’s Probability, Econometrics, and Truth: The Methodology of Econometrics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), Journal of Economic History 61 (2, June 2001), pp. 578-80.
47. Review of Joel Schwartz’s Fighting Poverty with Virtue: Moral Reform and America’s Urban Poor, 1825-2000 (Indiana University Press, 2000), The Independent Review 6 (2, Spring 2002).
48. Review of Alice O’Connor, Chris Tilly, and Lawrence D. Bobo, eds., Urban Inequality: Evidence from Four Cities, Journal of Economic History 61 (4, Dec. 2001), pp. 1145-6.
49. Review of Steven King’s Poverty and welfare in England, 1700-1850 (Manchester University Press, 2000), Economic History Association, EH-Net, October 2001.
50. Review of Steven King’s Poverty and welfare in England, 1700-1850, Journal of Interdisciplinary History (Fall 2002).
51. Review of Robert A. Margo’s Wages and Labor Markets in the United States, 1820- 1860, International Review of Social History 47 (3, Dec. 2002), pp. 496-99.
52. Review of Sheldon Danziger and Robert Haveman, ed., Understanding Poverty, Journal of Economic History 62 (4, Dec. 2002), pp. 1165-6.
53. Review of Jeffrey Sklansky’s The Soul’s Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820-1920, Journal of Economic History 63 (3, 2003), pp. 903-5.
54. Review of Lawrence J. Friedman and Mark D. McGarvie’s Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History, Journal of Economic History 64 (1, March 2004), pp. 273-4.
55. Review of Peter Saunder’s The End and Means of Welfare, Economic Record 80 (250, September 2004), pp. 346-57.
56. Review of Tony Lawson’s Reorienting Economics, Journal of Socio-Economics (2008).
57. Review of Jonathan A. Glickstein’s American Exceptionalism/American Anxiety: Wages, Competition, and Degraded Labor in the Antebellum United States, International Review of Social History 49 (2, 2004).
58. Review of Jocelyn Elise Crowley’s The Politics of Child Support in America, EH-Net (the on-line publication of the Economic History Association). March 2004.
59. Review of Judith Russell’s Economics, Bureaucracy, and Race: How Keynesians Misguided the War on Poverty, Journal of Economic History. Forthcoming. 60. Review of Gareth Stedman Jones's An End to Poverty? EH-NET, forthcoming 2007.
Research in Progress
Rhetoric of Human and Life Sciences
Student's Methods: Science Before Fisher (book).
What does empirical research look like in an anti-foundational world, and can its findings connect to questions of efficiency and social justice? The life and times of William Sealy Gosset (1876-1937) say Yes. This book describes the scientific character of Gosset, the inventor of the t-test, a practical Bayesian, and the unknown father of economic significance. A marriage of philosophical pragmatism with Bayesian statistics can further Gosset’s twin yet neglected stances of anti-foundational epistemology and socially conscious science.
The New Applied Theory of Price (with Deirdre McCloskey). Third Edition (MacMillan). Microeconomic theory and applications. Suitable for first year graduate students and advanced undergraduates.
“An Economic Criticism of English Literature” (book; with Deirdre McCloskey and Mary Beth Combs).
A Norton-anthology type book, designed to be a bedside reader for non-economist lovers of economics and literature.
“Recent Innovations for Charlie Brown’s Teacher: Some Uses of Fiction in Undergraduate Economics.”
Economic History:
Self-Reliance (book).
An economic and cultural history of the idea that privatizing welfare builds self- reliance among the poor. The context is urban and rural America, 19th and 20th century.
“State Charities and Corrections: Civil War to the Great Depression”
Welfare and prisons grew up together, yet little is known about their history. This is a major data collection project on the so-called “state charities and corrections”—1860s to the New Deal.
“Sex and the City: Female Educational Attainment and the History of Marrying Up” (with Roderick Duncan).
The population of college educated women in the United States exceeds that of men by more than two million and the difference is rising. Yet women have a history of marrying men with more education–a tendency that rises in probability, the post-War evidence says, as women acquire more education. It’s like “Sex and the City,” the prophesy of James Thurber. The new season, a season of “marrying down,” or not at all, may carry implications for personnel policy, wage differentials, and the gender division of labor.
Major Archival Research Projects
Testing, Estimation, and the Design of Experiments -- the Scientific Contributions of William Sealy Gosset (1876-1937): Guinness Archives (Guinness Storehouse, Dublin); University College London Special Collections; Museum for English Rural Life (University of Reading, UK).
The History and Philosophy of Statistical Significance: University College London Special Collections (Karl Pearson, Egon Pearson, W. S. Gosset, Ronald Fisher, and Jerzy Neyman files); University of Chicago (Crerar, Regenstein, Eckhart); University of Illinois-Chicago (Health Sciences, Math, Science).
Classical Economics, Literary Representations, and the Rise and Fall of the Poorhouse: University of Iowa, Main Library, Government Publications; Emory University Woodruff Library, Government Publications; Bowling Green State University, Main Library, Government Publications; Indiana Historical Society Library; Indiana State Library; Iowa Historical Society Library.
Welfare Reform in History—the Charity Organization Society: Indiana Historical Society Library; Indiana State Library; Iowa Historical Society Library; City of Indianapolis Department of Municipal Records; Indiana University-Purdue University Main Library; Marion County Public Library.
Conference Presentations
“The Contradiction of Compassion.” Eastern Economic Association, New York City, Mar. 1995; Social Science History Association, Chicago, Oct. 1995; Cliometric Society, ASSA, San Francisco, Jan. 1996;
“The Rhetoric of Welfare Reform.” The Dickens Conference (Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Association), University of California-Santa Cruz, April 1995
“A Malthusian Vice.” Social Science History Association, New Orleans, Oct. 1996; American Economic Association, ASSA, New Orleans, Jan. 1997; National Policy History Conference, Bowling Green State University, June 1997 (panel organizer);
“Economics: the Dismal or the Gay Science?” The Style Conference, Bowling Green State University, July 1997 (panel organizer)
“The Rhetorics of Self-Reliance.” Eastern Economic Association, New York City, Feb. 1998
“Public Assistance: Colonial Times to the 1920s.” Social Science History Conference, a panel on the millennial edition of The Historical Statistics of the United States. With Joan Underhill Hannon and Price Fishback. Fort Worth, TX, November 1999
“Pauper Fiction: Paupers in Almshouses and the Odd Fit of Oliver Twist, 1850-1923.” Fourth World Congress of Cliometrics, Montreal, July 6-9, 2000
“Measures of Poverty Across Time and Space: The Challenges of Building Historical and International Poverty Measures,” Social Science History Association, Pittsburgh, October 26-29, 2000.
“Standard Errors in the 1990s,” Eastern Economic Association, New York City, Feb. 2003
“Interpretative Econometrics from α to Ω: Heterodox Economics and the Resurrection of Economic Significance,” ICAPE Conference on the Future of Heterodox Economics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, June 5-7, 2003.
“From Worthy Widows to Welfare Queens? The Elizabethan Poor Law and the Rhetoric of Relief in the Middle West,” 400 Years of Charity Conference, The Voluntary Action History Society, The University of Liverpool, and the Centre for Civil Society. University of Liverpool, September 11-13, 2001.
“Size Matters,”American Economic Association and Association for Social Economics, San Diego, CA, Jan. 2004. With Morris Altman, Kenneth Arrow, Clive Granger, Edward Leamer, Deirdre McCloskey, Tony O’Brien, Erik Thorbecke, and Arnold Zellner.
(plenary address) “Size Matters,” Association for Heterodox Economics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, July 2004.
“Size Matters,” Meetings of the Southern Economic Association, New Orleans, November 2004.
“Against Testimation,” Post-Graduate Workshop in Advanced Research Methods, Association for Heterodox Economics, Manchester, U.K., Feb 4-6, 2005. Invited keynote speaker and faculty mentor.
(plenary address) “Size Matters,” Rhetoric and Economics Conference, Millikin University, June 6-9, 2005. With Deirdre McCloskey.
Roundtable Discussion: The Rhetoric of Economics--20 Years On,” Rhetoric and Economics Conference, Millikin University, June 6-9, 2005. With Arjo Klamer, Benny Balak, and Deirdre McCloskey.
Other Conference Activity: Participant, “The Teaching of Economics,” Bowling Green State University, Spring 1997; Roundtable Participant, “Liberty and the Problem of Cultural and Institutional Rigidities,” Santa Clara University, San Jose, CA, October 1999; (Invited Faculty Mentor/Critic), Ph.D. Student Conference on Interdisciplinary Research, Institute for Liberal Arts, Emory University, Spring 2002; Roundtable Participant, “The Contributions of Lord Peter Bauer to Economic Development,” Texas A&M-College Station, September 2003. Roundtable Participant, “Tocqueville, Olmsted, and the Meaning of Public Space,” Liberty Fund, September 2006; annual meetings of the American Economic Association: numerous years.
Other Invited Presentations
“Size Matters”
ˇ Economics Colloquium, University of Georgia (Athens), Nov. 2002 ˇ School of Public Affairs, Baruch College (CUNY), Feb. 2003 ˇ Economics Colloquium, Illinois State (Normal), Nov. 2004 ˇ Center for Population Economics, University of Chicago, May 2005 ˇ Seminar on Economics, Philosophy, and Politics, George Mason University, Oct. 2005
“A Variation on Klein’s Constants”
ˇ Ivan Allen Lecture, Ivan Allen College, Georgia Institute of Technology, Oct. 2001
“Paupers in Almshouses”
ˇ SCHLITS (History) Roundtable: Georgia Tech, Georgia State, and Emory University, Feb. 2001
“Self-Reliance:”
ˇ University of Michigan, Economic History Workshop, April 1998 ˇ Agnes Scott College, Faculty and Students, April 1999 ˇ Emory University, Economics Colloquium, November 1999 ˇ Georgia Institute of Technology, Economics Colloquium, February 2000 ˇ Roosevelt University, School of Policy Studies, January 2003 ˇ University of the South, Economics Colloquium, January 2003
"The Contradiction of Compassion:”
ˇ College of the Holy Cross, Economics Colloquium, Feb. 1996 ˇ Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Economics Colloquium, Feb. 1996 ˇ Indiana University-Indianapolis, Economics Colloquium, Feb. 1997 ˇ Indiana University-Indianapolis, Jane Addams Fellows, Center on Philanthropy, Feb. 1997 ˇ Indiana University-Bloomington, Economic History Workshop, April 1997
“Re-figuring the Science in Scientific Charity:”
ˇ Loyola University, Chicago, Economics Colloquium, April 1999.
“The Standard Error of Regressions:”
ˇ University of Iowa, Economics Colloquium, Oct. 1995 ˇ Indiana University-Bloomington, Econometrics Colloquium, April 1996 ˇ Bowling Green State University, Econometrics Seminar, Oct. 1998 ˇ Georgia Institute of Technology, Economics Seminar, March 2002
“Rhetorical Studies of Economics:”
ˇ Department of English, Ph.D. Program in “Writing and Learning in the Disciplines,” Bowling Green State University, 1996 ˇ American Culture Studies, Ph.D. Program, Bowling Green State University, 1998
“Some Uses of Fiction in Undergraduate Economics:”
ˇ Teaching Colloquium, College of Business Administration, Bowling Green State University, 1997
“Reparations for Descendants of African-American Slaves?”
ˇ RACES student group, Emory University, April 2002
Selected Media Coverage
The Economist: “Signifying Nothing?” Article in Economics Focus, 31 January 2004 (by John Smutniak).
Chronicle of Higher Education: Article, “Taking on ‘Rational Man’,” Jan. 24, 2003 (by Peter Monaghan).
Science Magazine: Feb. 1, 2005, Article, “Getting Rich--A No Brainer?” (by Kim Krieger). Comment on research of Santa Fe Institute.
Forskning: Feb. 6, 2005, Article, “Hodelřst aksjemarked?” (by Ingrid Spilde). On “Size Matters.” Danish Press.ADVANCE \x 540 Figyelo: Feb. 5, 2004. Article, "Hazug számok |
