Professor Fishback is involved in a long-term study of the political economy of Roosevelt’s New Deal during the 1930s that examines both the determinants of New Deal spending and loans and their impact on local economies throughout the U.S. He is continuing his work on state labor legislation during the Progressive Era, and is editing and contributing to a book on the government’s role in the economy from colonial times to the present designed for readers who are not specialists in economics. His past work includes studies of the origins of workers’ compensation, company towns, coal miners, compensating differentials for workplace risks, workplace safety regulation, corruption, labor markets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and discrimination in labor markets and by governments.

His books include Government and the American Economy: A New History (Festschrift in honor of Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert Higgs), Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers’ Compensation, Soft Coal, Hard Choices: The Economic Welfare of Bituminous Coal Miners, 1890 to 1930, and Public Choice Essays in Honor of a Maverick Scholar: Gordon Tullock (with Gary Libecap and Edward Zajac). A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes and journals, he is the recipient of the Cliometrics Society Award, Paul Samuelson Award for Excellence, Richard A. Lester Prize for the Outstanding Book in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, Cole Prize, and Finalist for the Nevins Prize.