I. BIOGRAPHY

Born: Oakland, California, November 1956

Education

• University of Redlands, Redlands, California, B.S., magna cum laude, Economics and Mathematics, 1978
• University of California, Berkeley, California, M.A., Economics, 1980, Ph.D., Economics, 1985.  Dissertation: Advertising, Consumer Credit, and the "Consumer Durables Revolution" of the 1920s

• Adjunct Professor of Economics, 2002-present, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
  
• Visiting Associate Professor of Economics, Winter 2001, Department of Economics, Stanford University
• Visiting Associate Professor of Economics, 1993-2002, Summer 1993, Summer and Fall 1992, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
• Associate Professor of Economics, 1991-1995; Assistant Professor of Economics, 1985-1991; Instructor of Economics, 1984- 1985, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
• Research Associate, Summer and Fall 1991, Institute of Business and Economic Research, University of California, Berkeley

• Distinguished Teaching Award Recipient, University of California, Berkeley, 2002-2003
• Faculty Speaker, Senior Convocation Commencement, University of California, Berkeley, May 15, 2003
  
• Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History, Economic History Association, 1997
• Katharine Coman Lecturer in Economic History, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, March 23, 1995
• Roundtable regarding Buy Now, Pay Later held at Social Science History Association meetings, November 1992
• Distinguished Teaching Award Recipient, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1990-1991
• Junior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Spring 1991
• Lilly Endowment Teaching Fellow, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1987-1988
• Doctoral Dissertation Selected for Inclusion on the "Dissertation Session" Panel at the Annual Meetings of the Economic History Association, 1986
• Outstanding Young Women of America, 1980
• Phi Beta Kappa, University of Redlands, Redlands, California, 1978

• National Science Foundation (Grant SBR92-23736), Economics Program, April 1993 - April 1995
• Healey Endowment Grant, Graduate School, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, August 1990 - July 1991
• National Science Foundation (Grant SES89-10053), Research Opportunities for Women, Research Planning Grant, August 1989 - January 1991
• Faculty Research Grant, Graduate School, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, November 1987 - October 1989
• Arthur H. Cole Grant-in-Aid, Economic History Association, May 1986

Committee Assignments and Affiliated Appointments

• University of Massachusetts, Amherst: Chancellor's Multicultural Advisory Board, 1993-1994; Chancellor's Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Matters, 1993-1994; Department of Economics, Ad Hoc Committee on Undergraduate Enrollment Decline, Chair, 1993; School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Alumni Scholar Interview Committee, 1992; Graduate Division, Distinguished Teaching Award Selection Committee, Student Recipient Sub-committee Chair, 1991-1992; Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Search, Member, Faculty Interview Roster, 1991; Rules Committee of the Faculty Senate, 1988-1991; Religious Studies Steering Committee, 1988-1994; College of Arts and Sciences Information and Advising Center, Faculty Advisor, 1988; Faculty Senate, 1986-1994, 1995; Population Studies Program, Associated Faculty, 1986-1994; Department of Economics, Honors Coordinator and Undergraduate Committee Member, 1985- 1993.
• Economic History Association: Meetings Coordinator, 1994- 2003; Program Committee, 1991-1992; Membership Committee, 1990-1993 (Chair, 1992-1993); Audit Committee, 1990-1992; Organizer of Women's Luncheon, 1985-1994.
• Social Science History Association: Publications Committee, 1999-2002 (Chair, 2002); President's Book Award Selection Committee, 1995-1997 (Chair, 1996 and 1997); Program Committee, Economics Network Chair, 1991-1992
• Cliometric Society: Program Committee, ASSA Meetings, 1993; Logo Task Force, 1988.
• All-University of California Group in Economic History: Conference Organizer, 1992, 2001, 2003.
• Omicron Delta Epsilon: Faculty Advisor, Alpha Alpha Chapter, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1990-1994.
• External Reviewer for National Science Foundation.  Referee for Journal of Economic History; Explorations in Economic History; Eastern Economic Journal; Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; Economic History Review.
• Advisory Council, Credit Research Center, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, 2003- .
  

II. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

1. Buy Now, Pay Later: Advertising, Credit, and Consumer Durables in the 1920s, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.
   

1. Study Guide to Accompany Intermediate Macroeconomics, by J. Bradford DeLong, San Francisco: McGraw-Hill, 2002.  (Updated edition, 2002)

1. "Fertility and the Standard of Living in Early Modern England: In Consideration of Wrigley-Schofield." Journal of Economic History 43 (March 1983): 71-77.
2. "Credit as a Production-Smoothing Device: The Case of Automobiles, 1913-1938." Journal of Economic History 49 (June 1989): 377-91.
3. "Consumer Durables in the Interwar Years: New Estimates, New Patterns." Research in Economic History 12 (1989): 119-50.
4. "Demand for Consumer Durable Goods in Twentieth Century America." Explorations in Economic History 27 (July 1990): 322-49.
5. "When Your Word Is Not Enough: Race, Collateral, and Household Credit Use, 1918-1919." Journal of Economic History 58 (June 1998): 408-31.
6. "Avoiding Default: The Role of Credit in the Consumption Collapse of 1930." Quarterly Journal of Economics 114 (February 1999): 319-35

1. "Dissertation Abstract: Advertising, Consumer Credit, and the 'Consumer Durables Revolution' of the 1920s." Journal of Economic History 47 (June 1987): 489-491.
2. "Book Review of Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940, by Roland Marchand." Journal of Economic History 47 (December 1987): 1062-1063.
3. "Book Review of Business and Religion in the American 1920s, by Rolf Lunden." Journal of Economic History 49 (December 1989): 1062-63.
4. "Summary of Discussion: Papers Presented at the 30th Cliometrics Conference." The Newsletter of the Cliometric Society 5 (July 1990): 9-17.
5. "Book Review of The Credit Card Industry: A History, by Lewis Mandell." Journal of Economic History 51 (September 1991): 743-44.
6. "Book Review of An Economic History of the English Poor Law, 1750-1850, by George Boyer." Journal of Economic Literature 30 (September 1992): 1534-36.
7. "Saving and Dissaving by 12,817 American Households, 1917- 1919 [Computer File]." Amherst, MA: Martha L. Olney [producer], 1993. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1993.
8. "Book Review of Franchising in America: The Development of a Business Method, 1840-1980, by Thomas S. Dicke." Business History Review 67 (Spring 1993): 157-59.
9. "Book Review of Pursuing Happiness: American Consumers in the Twentieth Century, by Stanley Lebergott." Journal of Economic History 54 (June 1994): 491-92.
10. "Book Review of Markets: The U.S. in the Twentieth Century Series, edited by Grahame Thompson." Journal of Economic History 55 (June 1995): 447-48.
11. "Book Review of Consumer Expenditures: New Measures and Old Motives, by Stanley Lebergott." Economic History Review 50 (May 1997): 400-01.
12. "Reflections on Teaching."  http://www.eh.net/EHA/Publications/olney.shtml (October 1997).
13. "Book Review of Desegregating the Dollar: African American Consumerism in the Twentieth Century, by Robert      Weems, Jr."  Journal of Economic History 59 (June 1999): 539-40.
14. "Book Review of Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing, by Pamela W. Laird." Journal of Economic History 59 (September 1999): 830-31.
15. "Book Review of Financing the American Dream: a Cultural History of Consumer Credit, by Lendol Calder." Journal of Economic History 60 (March 2000): 301-03.
16. “Book Review of It’s in the Cards: Consumer Credit and the American Experience, by Lloyd Klein.”  Journal of Economic History 61 (June 2001): 561-562.
17. “Consumer Credit.”  Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History.  Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
18. “Advertising.”  Dictionary of American History.  3d edition. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003.
19. “Consumer Credit.”  Dictionary of American History.  3d edition. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003.
20. “Credit Cards.” Dictionary of American History.  3d edition. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003.
    

 

1. "Toward an Understanding of the Consumer Durables Revolution of the 1920s" (April 1984). Presented at the Conference of the All-University of California Economic History Research Group, University of California, Davis, May 4, 1984; the Cliometrics Meetings, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, May 19, 1984: and the Harvard University Economic History Workshop, November 30, 1984.
2. "The Development of Annual Estimates of Consumer Durables: Flows of Expenditures and Stocks, 1869-1982." Working Papers on the History of Saving Numbers 3 and 3S (January 1985). Institute of Business and Economic Research, University of California, Berkeley.
3. "The Supply of Consumer Credit and the Demand for Consumer Durables in the Twentieth Century" (August 1986). Presented at the Columbia University Economic History Workshop, New York, New York, October 2, 1986; and the Social Science History Association Meetings, St. Louis, Missouri, October 18, 1986.
4. "The Rise of Consumer Credit and the Demand for Consumer Durable Goods: Cause and Effect?" (November 1986). Presented at the University of California, Berkeley, Economic History Seminar, November 25, 1986; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Economic History and Development Workshop, March 18, 1987; and the Indiana University, Economic History Workshop, April 23, 1987.
5. "Consumer Durables in the Interwar Years: New Estimates, New Patterns" (January 1988). Working Paper Number 1988- 5, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
6. "Credit as a Marketing Device: The Case of Automobiles, 1913-1938" (March 1988). Presented at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Economic History Workshop, April 6, 1988; and the Economic History Association Meetings, Detroit, Michigan, September 24, 1988.
7. "Credit-Financed Consumption of Durable Goods in the United States: Evidence from the Cost of Living Survey, 1917-1919" (November 1988). Presented at the Social Science History Association Meetings, Chicago, Illinois, November 6, 1988; and the University of Western Ontario Economic History/History of Thought Seminar, London, Ontario, Canada, December 16, 1988.
8. "Credit as a Production-Smoothing Device: The Case of Automobiles, 1913-1938" (January 1989). Working Paper Number 15, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
9. "A Burgeoning Credit Economy" (November 1989). Presented at the Barnard College Political Economy Workshop, New York City, New York, November 15, 1989; the Social Science History Association Meetings, Washington, DC, November 18, 1989; and the Washington Area Economic History Seminar, Washington, DC, December 1, 1989.
10. "Household Saving and Installment Buying in the Early Twentieth Century" (November 1990). Presented at the Yale University Workshop in Economic History and History of Economic Thought, November 14, 1990; and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Economic History and Development Workshop, December 12, 1990.
11. "Credit is Credit is Credit...Or, Is it? Household Borrowing in Early Twentieth Century U.S." (April 1991). Presented at the Harvard University, Economic History Workshop, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 19, 1991; the Cliometrics Meetings, Bloomington, Indiana, May 18, 1991.
12. "Making Music, Stitching Seams: Determinants of Family Ownership of Musical Instruments and Sewing Machines, Michigan, 1889 and 1890" (May 1991). Presented at the Kansas Historical Labor Statistics Conference, Lawrence, Kansas, June 21, 1991.
13. "Buying on Time and Buying Time: Patterns of Credit Use by American Households, 1918-1919" (August 1991). Presented at the University of California, Berkeley, Economic History Seminar, Berkeley, California, September 9, 1991; and the Stanford University, Economic History Workshop, Stanford, California, October 2, 1991.
14. "Dissaving in America: The Use of Credit by Households in 1918 and 1919" (September 1991). Presented at the Economic History Association Meetings, Boulder, Colorado, September 27, 1991.
15. "Household Credit, Default Consequences, and Consumption: Understanding the 1930s" (October 1991). Presented at the University of California, Riverside, Economic History Workshop, Riverside, California, October 17, 1991; the University of California, Davis, Economic History Brown-Bag, Davis, California, October 22, 1991; and the Berkeley- Stanford Faculty Colloquium in Economic History, Berkeley, California, October 23, 1991.
16. "Stitching Seams: The Substitution of Market Production for Household Production Among Wage-Earning American Women, 1890s and 1918" (October 1991). Presented at the Social Science History Association Meetings, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 2, 1991.
17. "Saving and Dissaving by 12,817 American Households, 1918- 1919: A Manual to Accompany Distribution of Archival Data to Research Scholars" (November 1992).
18. "Household Credit, Default Consequences, and Consumption in the 1930s: The Importance of Institutional Characteristics" (November 1992). Presented at the NBER Universities Research Conference on Financial Institutions and Macroeconomic Instability in Historical Perspective, Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 11, 1992.
19. "When Your Word is Not Enough: Racial Differences in Credit Use, 1918-1919" (November 1992). Presented at the Indiana University Economic History Workshop, December 3, 1992; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Economic History Workshop, December 4, 1992; and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Economic History and Development Workshop, January 29, 1993.
20. "Structural Change in Twentieth Century U.S.: The Rise of the Service Sector and the Question of Deindustrialization" (March 1993; revised March 1994). Presented at the University of California, Berkeley, Economic History Seminar, March 15, 1993; the Northwestern University Economic History Workshop, April 1, 1993; and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Economic History Workshop, April 2, 1993.
21. "When Did It Become Cheaper to Default?: Some Legal History on Installment Contracts" (September 1994; revised March 1995). Presented at the University of California, Berkeley Economic History Seminar, October 10, 1994; the Social Science History Association meetings, October 15, 1994. Revised version presented at Harvard University Economic History Workshop, March 24, 1995; University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Economic History and Development Workshop, March 29, 1995.
22. ) "When Your Word Is Not Enough: Race, Collateral, and Household Credit Use, 1918-1919" (March 1996; revised March 1997).
23. "Avoiding Default: The Role of Credit in the Consumption Collapse of 1930" (June 1997).
24. "Paying Later: The History of Consumer Installment Credit in America, A Prospectus" (April 1998).  Presented at the University of California, Berkeley, Economic History Seminar, April 1998.
25. "Consumerism: An Economist's Perspective" (August 1998). Presented at the University of California, Berkeley Economic History Seminar, September 1998; the Economic History Association Meetings, Durham, North Carolina, September 25, 1998.
26. "From Skip to Hapless Victim:  Interwar Changes in the Legal Consequences of Consumer Default" (February 2000).  Presented at the University of California, Berkeley Economic History Seminar, February 2000; the Business History Conference Meetings, Palo Alto, California, March 11, 2000; the All-UC Economic History Group Conference, Riverside, California, November 17, 2000.
27. “Films and Regressions: Options in Teaching Economic History” (October 2002).  Presented at the Social Science History Association Meetings, St Louis, Missouri, October 25, 2002.
28. “Spendthrift, or Sophisticated Borrower?:  Institutional Response to the Twentieth Century Evolution of Consumer Credit” (November 2002).  Invited paper presented at the Conference on Credit, Trust, and Calculation, U.C. San Diego, November 12-14, 2002.
29. “When Credit Access is Limited, Is Saving Higher?: Examining the Puzzle of High Saving Rates for Poor Black Families” (January 2003).  Presented at the Allied Social Science Association Meetings, Washington DC, January 5, 2003.
    
    

III. ADDITIONAL PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY

Participation in Professional Meetings Not Listed Above

• Economic History Association Annual Meetings: Discussant, September 1992; Discussant, September 1989.
• Social Science History Association Meetings: Discussant, October 1997; Roundtable Participant and Session Chair, November 1995; Roundtable Participant and Session Chair, November 1992; Discussant, October 1987.
• Cliometric Society: Discussant, ASSA Sessions, January 1998; Session Chair and Invited Participant, May 1997; Discussant, ASSA Sessions, January 1996; Session Chair, ASSA Sessions, January 1994; Session Chair and Invited Participant, May 1992; Recorder and Invited Participant, May 1990; Session Chair and Discussant, ASSA Sessions, December 1988; Invited participant, May 1988; Invited Participant and Session Chair, May 1986.
• Business History Conference: Discussant, March 1991.
• National Bureau of Economic Research: Invited Participant, NBER-Development of the American Economy One- Day Conference, March 1993; Invited Participant, Workshop on Macroeconomic History, May 1994, April 1992, April 1991, April 1990.
• American Historical Association Annual Meetings: Discussant, January 1994.
• All-University of California Economic History Conference: Local Arrangements Chair, April 2001; Discussant, November 1997; Invited Participant, April 1997; Discussant, November 1995; Discussant, March 1995; Session Chair, November 1994; Session Chair, November 1991; Invited Participant, May 1986.
• University of Massachusetts, Boston: Invited Participant, Invisible Diversity Conference, May 1992.

• "Buy Now, Pay Later: When Easy Credit Can Create Economic Disaster." Katharine Coman Lecture in Economic History, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, March 23, 1995.
• "The Logistics: Organizing and Managing the Large Lecture Class." With Richard Halgin. Center for Teaching, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, October 25, 1995.
• "Being a Teaching Assistant in the Large Lecture Course." Center for Teaching, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, November 1, 1995.
• "Greed." KQED-FM Forum, San Francisco, California, August 14, 1997.
• "Explaining Recent Economic Prosperity."  Channel One Network, Los Angeles, California, aired October 16, 2000.  Archived at http://channelone.com/video/metafiles/20001016_daily.rm.
• “Today’s Economy in Historical Perspective.”   Cal Alumni Club of Oakmont, Santa Rosa, California, November 13, 2002.
  
  

Organized and hosted Economic History Lunches for graduate students and faculty, 1996 - present; with Barry Eichengreen, Spring 1996, 1996-97; with Brad DeLong, Summer 1997, 1997-98.  Invited participant, Faculty Night at the Athletic Study Center, Student Learning Center, February 4, 1997, February 2, 1998, February 1999.  Invited participant, Career Night at the Athletic Study Center, Student Learning Center, February 10, 1998.  Invited participant, meeting with Coach Tom Holmoe, regarding enhancing academic-athletics connection, April 10, 1997.  Invited speaker, Economics Tutors seminar, Student Learning Center, April 14, 1997, April 1999.  Invited speaker, Business fraternity event, Spring 2002.  Invited participant, 

• American Economic Association
• Business History Conference
• Cliometric Society
• Committee for the Status of Women in the Economics Profession
• Economic History Association
• Social Science History Association

IV. NONACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS AND INVITED LECTURES

Publications

1. "Reflections on Getting 'Dissed.'" Second Stone (1996).
2. "No Outing / No Silencing!" Open Hands 12 (Summer 1996): 17.
3. "Acts 8 in Today's Church." With Deirdre N. McCloskey. Open Hands 12 (Fall 1996): 22-23.

1. "An Economics Primer." League of Women Voters, Amherst, Massachusetts, October 1988.
2. "Christian Economics 101." First Congregational Church, Berkeley, California, August 1997.
3. "Empowerment Through the Life Experiences of Women." Prytanean Honor Society, November 1998.

Document prepared by Prof. Martha Olney 
Last updated 7/25/2003.