A Career In 30 Minutes (Institutional Economics Highlights): Dr. Daniel Bromley

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This past May, Dr. Eric Scorsone and I had the opportunity to host meetings with some of those still active and interested in Michigan-Wisconsin Institutional Economics (or the Great Lakes School of Institutional Economics). As part of these meetings, we were able to interview Dr. Daniel Bromley, Emeritus Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics as part of our oral history project.

 In a 30-minute interview at the Kellogg Center, Eric (as interviewer) attempted to touch on as many important parts of Bromley's story as possible. The interview starts at the beginning of Bromley's academic career at Utah State in the early 1960's, where he studied Ecology. From there, Bromley talks about his transition into issues of law and institutions, the conception of his earliest works, and ultimately the conception of his latest book, Possessive Individualism: A Crisis of Capitalism (Available October 14th, Oxford Press). 

 My favorite part of this entire interview (aside from getting to sit in the room while it was happening), is getting to hear the way Bromley thinks.  He has a gift for speaking that few modern economists match, reminiscent of a history professor more than an economics prof., able to pull in the relevant realities of the times in which his story takes place and grant you new perspective. We got to hear a lot more of this during his book talk the night before.  That will be uploaded here sometime in the coming weeks.

 It's our hope that by sharing more of these stories, we can preserve some of the voices that make the field so unique for future cohorts that weren't able to sit in the room with them. . 
Brief Bio: Bromley received his PhD (1969) in natural resource economics from Oregon State University, where he studied under Emery Castle. Since then, he has gone on to work in over 20 countries on problems of economic development, environmental policy, and the institutional foundation of markets, and has authored over 10 books and countless journal articles over the course of his (very prosperous) career. These books include Economic Interests & Institutions: the conceptual foundations of public policy and Sufficient Reason: Volitional Pragmatism and the Meaning of Economic Institutions. Most recently, he finished writing Possessive Individualism: A Crisis of Capitalism (Book Talk available here). Bromley has also been the recipient of many award, including the Veblen-Commons Award from the Association for Evolutionary Economics and the 2011 Reimar Lüst Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. 2018 marked his 44th and final year as editor of the journal Land Economics. 

Location: East Lansing, MI, USA

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