About

Dustin Frye is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research integrates urban economics and economic history to explore how public policy, infrastructure, and institutions influence economic development, health, and long-run spatial outcomes. A central theme of his work is the construction of original data, involving the assembly of new historical datasets from sources such as census microdata, land patents, infrastructure maps, and administrative records. His research areas include the economic geography of US transportation networks, historical urban infrastructure and its long-term effects, and federal Indian policy and reservation economies from 1880 to the present. Frye's work has received support from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and has been published in prominent journals including the Review of Economics and Statistics and the Journal of Political Economy: Microeconomics. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Colorado Boulder and holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Montana. Before joining the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he served as an Assistant Professor at Vassar College.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Economics
• Law
• Sociology
• Market economy
• Law and economics
• Computer Science
• Public administration
• Macroeconomics
• Business
• Archaeology
• Environmental planning
• Finance
• Public economics
• Geography
• Economic growth
• Development economics

Selected publications

• Ka Mua, Ka Muri—Walking Backwards into the Future: Revitalizing Indigenous Economies and Economies of Well-Being

  Indigenous Business and Public Administration · 2025-08-11

  articleOpen access

  The concept of and desire for well-being economies are rising in prevalence as traditional business paradigms are questioned and alternative framings are being sought. Indigenous peoples, their economies, and their approach to business can provide a rich source of learning to enable and help facilitate a transition to economies of well-being. As Indigenous peoples are emerging from their colonial pasts, they are becoming more empowered to make investment choices, use business models, and form partnerships grounded in their worldviews, which are often well aligned with a well-being economy. In this paper, we note some of the obstacles Indigenous economies have faced and outline success stories where Indigenous tribes/communities/peoples have created business opportunities that are underpinned by their worldviews and are thriving commercially. We then describe a conceptual framework for how Indigenous peoples could support a broader transition to economies of well-being. Indigenous worldviews can provide a way for ‘reimagining’ the economy. Growing the self-determination of Indigenous peoples provides greater opportunities to create ‘reimagined business models’ that align with a reimagined economy and Indigenous worldviews, and thus helps demonstrate ways to start a transition toward economies of well-being. The findings, insights, and conclusions outlined in this paper were drawn from a convened workshop and subsequent dialogue of 24 Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States of America.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Property Rights without Transfer Rights: A Study of Indian Land Allotment

  Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics · 2025-07-14

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Transportation Networks and the Geographic Concentration of Employment

  The Review of Economics and Statistics · 2024-02-09 · 15 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This paper examines the effect of expanding transportation networks on spatial industrial growth across the United States from 1953 to 2016. I use a new methodological approach that applies network theory combined with a historic military map to address the two forms of endogeneity present in expanding transportation networks: route placement and construction timing. I find that Interstate counties experienced significant growth in employment and the number of establishments relative to non-Interstate counties. Growth rates are highest within two decades of receiving an Interstate. Results also reveal positive spillovers occurred in later decades among adjacent counties along the metropolitan periphery.

  PublisherDOI

• Replication data for: Transportation Networks and the Geographic Concentration of Employment

  Harvard Dataverse · 2023-11-29

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Review of Economics and Statistics: Forthcoming.

  PublisherDOI

• Bureaucratic discretion in policy implementation: evidence from the Allotment Era

  Public Choice · 2022 · 8 citations

  • Political Science
  • Economics
  • Public administration
  PublisherDOI

• Indigenous Self-Governance and Development on American Indian Reservations

  AEA Papers and Proceedings · 2021 · 32 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Development economics

  The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People promotes self-governance as a matter of justice rather than economics. How will self-governance affect the incomes of indigenous people? To gain insight, we compare long-run income growth on American Indian reservations with and without federal oversight through the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. Reservations with more autonomy had 12-15 percent higher income per capita in 2016, even conditional on 1930s income. However, these more autonomous reservations also experienced wider income variance with more downside risk. The findings are consistent with theory emphasizing the development trade-offs between local and centralized governance.

  PublisherDOI

• Property Rights Without Transfer Rights: A Study of Indian Land Allotment

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2020 · 5 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Computer Science
  • Business
  PublisherDOI

• Property Rights without Transfer Rights: A Study of Indian Land Allotment

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2020-07-01 · 23 citations

  reportOpen access

  Governments often institute transferability restrictions over property rights to protect owners and communities, but these restrictions impose costs: lowering property values, limiting investment, and increasing transaction costs. We study the long-run impacts of transferability restrictions using a natural experiment affecting millions of acres of Native American reservation land, by comparing non-transferable allottedtrust plots with transferable fee-simple plots. We use satellite imagery to study differences in land use across tenure types by leveraging fine-grained fixed effects to compare immediate neighbors. We find that fee-simple plots are 13% more likely to be developed and have 35% more land in cultivation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Paternalism Versus Sovereignty

  2016-01-01

  other1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Transportation Networks, Institutions, and Regional Inequality

  CU Scholar (University of Colorado Boulder) · 2015-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This dissertation focuses on long-run patterns of regional inequality by addressing two general themes: the importance of transportation networks for location choices of individuals and forms, and the role of institutions on economic development across Native American reservations. My findings highlight the significance of transportation networks, and local governance for regional economic development.\nIn the first chapter, I measure the effect of improvements in transportation infrastructure on industry growth and concentration. To address the endogenous placement of interstate highways, I instrument for eventual highway location using two proposed government plans. To address the endogeneity surrounding the timing of highway construction, I use a network theory algorithm to predict the timing of highway construction. The results indicate that the expansion of the Interstate Highway System (IHS) led to substantial employment growth in highway counties relative to non- highway counties. This employment growth was concentrated in a few industries. This paper demonstrates the importance of expanding transportation networks for the spatial arrangement of economic activity. In my second chapter, I concentrate on the U.S. agricultural sector. The IHS altered the structure of transportation costs. This paper provides the first empirical analysis of the impact of new interstate highway infrastructure on farm property values and the portfolio of agricultural commodities produced. Estimates correcting for endogenous highway locations and construction timing indicate the value of land per acre fell in highway locations relative to non-highway locations. This loss appears driven by a declining value of agricultural products sold. Additional results find no evidence that highway counties are more specialized in their production than non-highway counties.\nIn the final chapter, I exploit the decentralization of governance across American Indian reservations and measure the long-run development differences for reservations that were granted less sovereignty through the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA). To mitigate selection concerns regarding IRA adoption, I exploit IRA voting results by restricting my analysis to narrowly determined elections. Results indicate that IRA adoption stifled economic development. Per capita income is over 40 percent lower on IRA reservations. Additional legislation in the late 1980s further decentralized IRA reservations; as a result income differences diminish by 2010.

  PublisherOA PDF

Frequent coauthors

• Jakob Schneebacher

  16 shared

• Seth Benzell

  16 shared

• Dan Bogart

  University of California, Irvine

  16 shared

• Max Satchell

  University of Cambridge

  16 shared

• Kevin Cooke

  16 shared

• Christian Dippel

  Western University

  3 shared

• Bryan Leonard

  University of Wyoming

  1 shared

• Dominic P. Parker

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1 shared

Education

• PhD, Economics

  University of Colorado Boulder

  2015

• Masters of Arts, Economics

  University of Colorado Boulder

  2011

• Bachelors of Arts, Mathematics

  University of Montana

  2006