Kris Mitchener is Finocchio Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University and Research Associate at the NBER. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley. An economic historian, he has inter alia published in the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Economic Growth, Economic Journal, and the Journal of Economic History. In earlier work, he explored why countries adopt fixed exchange rate systems, how fixed exchange rates impact sovereign debt spreads, how sovereign debt claims are enforced, and how empires, currency unions, and fixed exchange rate systems impact trade flows between countries.