Eric Hilt

Professor of Economics

Contact
Phone:
+1 (781) 283-2986
Email:
ehilt@wellesley.edu
Department
Economics

Links

Focuses on the history of American business organizations and their governance, and more generally on the role of legal institutions in shaping economic and financial development.

My research focuses on the history of American business organizations and their governance, and more generally on the role of legal institutions in shaping economic and financial development. My most recent work has analyzed the impact of historical financial crises on the development of financial regulations; the role of bankers on the boards of 19th-century American corporations; and the shareholder protections intended to attract investors in early corporations. Earlier work analyzed the organizational forms and contracts utilized in the American whaling industry.

At Wellesley, I teach a class on American economic and financial history, a finance class, and Introductory Macroeconomics.

I am a research associate in the Development of the American Economy program of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and I am on the editorial board of the Journal of Economic History.

Link to Personal Page

Education

  • A.B., Occidental College
  • M.Phil., Columbia University
  • Ph.D., Columbia University

Current and upcoming courses

Economics Research Seminar

ECON380H

A seminar for senior economics majors engaged in independent research. Students will learn about the use of empirical techniques in economics, including the opportunity to engage with the research of prominent economists, who present their work at the Calderwood and Goldman seminars hosted by the department. Students will also present and discuss their own research at weekly meetings. Students may not accumulate more than 0.5 credit for this course.

More Info

  • Finance Theory and Investments

    ECON323

    This course provides a rigorous treatment of the fundamentals of finance. Topics include the valuation of distant cash flows, pricing financial instruments such as stocks, bonds and options, portfolio choice, and equilibrium theories of asset pricing. Where possible, modern academic research that relates to these topics will be introduced and discussed.