Scott C. Miller
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Director, Democracy and Capitalism Lab, Karsh Institute of Democracy
Senior Fellow, Miller Center of Public Affairs
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Education: BA, Vanguard University; MA, George Mason University; MA, PhD, University of Virginia; Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale School of Management
Scott C. Miller is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business, Director of the Democracy and Capitalism Lab at the Karsh Institute of Democracy, and Senior Fellow at the Miller Center of Public Affairs. He has received many awards and fellowships, including the Economic History Fellowship at the International Center for Jefferson Studies, the James C. Rees Entrepreneurship Fellowship at The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, the Bankard Fund for Political Economy Predoctoral Fellowship, and the John Carter Brown Library Fellowship at Brown University. He is the author or co-author of numerous scholarly papers on economic history, financial crises, and the interplay between societal and economic change. He has also written or co-written 10 case studies on financial crisis and economic development.
As an economic historian, Miller examines the development of modern economic systems, particularly during period of instability and volatility. In two different veins of research, Miller uses economic crises as a lens to isolate mechanisms of change in the early American Republic and 1840s Europe, with broad corollaries for modern systems in the first and second stages of economic development. Miller's work frames the early American republic as a resource-rich, capital- and labor-poor developing economy, which was reliant on and subject to global export markets dominated by global hegemons such as Great Britain. Likewise, 1840s Europe represents a system of interconnected economies at the brink of breakout industrialization. While not perfect stand-ins for 21st century development stories, early American and 1840s Europe serve as excellent case studies for the symbiotic relationship between institutions, factor endowments, political systems, cultural values, and contingent events in the development process.
For more information and copies of his papers and essays, visit his website. A native of Denver, Colorado, Miller received a BA from Vanguard University in 2007, MA in American History from George Mason University in 2013, and an MA and PhD in Economic History from the University of Virginia in 2015 and 2018, respectively.
Selected Academic Publications & Works in Progress
Minerva Rising!: The Revolutionary Origins of American Economic Power, University of Chicago Press, forthcoming in July 2026.
Can Democracy and Capitalism be Reconciled?, ed. with Sidney M. Milkis, Oxford University Press, including essay “America’s Founding Question: Can Democracy and Capitalism Co-Exist?” with Sidney M. Milkis, forthcoming in November 2025.
“An Almost Total Stagnation of Business”: The Depression of the 1780s,” in Cambridge History of the American Revolution, Vol. 3, ed. Marjoleine Kars, Andy Schocket, and Michael McDonnell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), forthcoming in November 2025.
“To ‘relieve industry and labour from any undue burden’: Lessons from History’s First Great Liberalization, 1844-1845,” with Vaska Atta-Darkua and Robert F. Bruner, Revue d’Economie Financiere, Vol. 159, forthcoming in Summer 2025.
“Causes and Dynamics of Equity Market Run-ups and “Bubbles”: Lessons from the Boom and Bust of Britain’s Railway Mania of the 1840s,” with Vaska Atta-Darkua and Robert F. Bruner, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, forthcoming in Summer 2025.
“Investor Reactions to Legislative Liberalization and the Run-up in British Share Prices, 1844-1845,” with Vaska Atta-Darkua and Robert F. Bruner, Financial History Review, Vol. 31, No. 1 (2025), 1-35.
“Management Educators Should Study and Teach History,” with Robert F. Bruner, Michael Lenox, Scott C. Miller, & June West, Working Paper, Darden School of Business, February 2023.
“Transatlantic Monetary Shocks and the Depression of the 1780s,” Working Paper, Darden School of Business, December 2022.
“The First Modern Crises: The South Sea and Mississippi Bubbles in Historical Perspective,” with Robert F. Bruner, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Fall 2020), 17-33.
“Building Trust and Connecting Trade: A New Model for Re-Creating Early American Commercial Networks,” under final revision for Enterprise & Society.
"Financial Contagion and the European Revolutions of 1848,” with Robert F. Bruner, in development.
“The Great Crash of 1929: A 90th Anniversary Reassessment,” with Robert F. Bruner, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Fall 2019), 43-55.
““Never Did I See So Universal a Frenzy”: The Panic of 1791 and the Republicanization of Philadelphia,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 142, No. 1 (January 2018), 7-48.