Howard Bodenhorn

Howard Bodenhorn is a Professor of Economics at Clemson University's John E. Walker Department of Economics, housed within the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Rutgers University (1990) and has held prestigious fellowships from the Kauffman Foundation (2006) and Guggenheim Foundation (2009).

His research focuses on banking history, economic history of crime, and race economics. Key contributions include analyzing antebellum financial systems, racial disparities in sentencing, and the economic impacts of Jim Crow-era policies. He has published extensively in journals like the Journal of Economic History and co-authored The Color Factor: The Economics of African-American Well-Being in the Nineteenth-Century South (2015).

Bodenhorn serves as a Research Associate in the Development of the American Economy Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His work bridges historical institutional analysis with modern economic theory, addressing topics like the political economy of banking, the effects of public health crises on commerce, and the interplay between financial systems and urban growth.

• Key Grants: National Science Foundation, Kauffman Foundation, Guggenheim Fellowship
• Teaching: Courses include Economic History of the U.S., Law & Economics, and Creative Inquiry projects on crime and economic development in South Carolina
• Recent Research: Explores cash bail systems, early American currency networks, and the legacy of convict labor