Rate My Professor Robert Fleck

Robert Fleck is a Professor of Economics in Business & Economics at Clemson University in the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business, where he also serves as the undergraduate coordinator for the Department of Economics. He earned a B.A. in Economics summa cum laude from the University of California, San Diego in 1985 and a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University in 1994. Before joining Clemson University, Fleck was a Professor of Economics at Montana State University. He has received distinguished fellowships, including the Julian Simon Fellowship in 2005 and Lone Mountain Fellowships in 2013 and 2016 at the Property and Environment Research Center, as well as a National Fellowship at Stanford's Hoover Institution from 2010 to 2011. Fleck has won awards for both teaching and research excellence.

Fleck's main fields of interest include political economy, public finance, economic history, law and economics, and development economics. His research focuses on the causes and consequences of major political and economic transitions, as well as the reasons why only some countries adopt successful political and economic reforms. Notable publications include "Voter Influence and Big Policy Change: The Positive Political Economy of the New Deal" in the Journal of Political Economy (2008), "Changing Aid Regimes? U.S. Foreign Aid from the Cold War to the War on Terror" with Christopher Kilby in the Journal of Development Economics (2010), "Why Did the Electorate Swing Between Parties During the Great Depression?" in Explorations in Economic History (2013), and collaborative works with F. Andrew Hanssen such as "How Tyranny Paved the Way to Democracy: The Democratic Transition in Ancient Greece" in the Journal of Law and Economics (2013), "Persistence and Change in Age-Specific Gender Gaps: Hollywood Actors from the Silent Era Onward" in the International Review of Law and Economics (2016), and "Rulers Ruled by Women: An Economic Analysis of the Rise and Fall of Women's Rights in Ancient Sparta" in Economics of Governance (2009). Other significant papers address price-gouging prohibitions, judicial review, eminent domain, and foreign aid allocation. Fleck is invited to deliver the keynote address at the Economic and Business History Society conference in 2025.