Mira Wilkins (born 1 June 1931) is an American economic and business historian and a world authority on the history of American business and foreign direct investment. She is Professor Emerita at the Department of Economics,

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest uni ...

. Wilkins received an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

and a PhD from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1957. She has been a pioneer in the field of business history, especially in the field of

foreign direct investment A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct co ...

foreign portfolio investment A foreign portfolio investment is a grouping of assets such as stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents. Portfolio investments are held directly by an investor or managed by financial professionals. In economics, foreign portfolio investment is the entr ...

and

multinational enterprise A multinational company (MNC), also referred to as a multinational enterprise (MNE), a transnational enterprise (TNE), a transnational corporation (TNC), an international corporation or a stateless corporation with subtle but contrasting senses, i ...

s on which she published two books ''The History of Foreign Investment in the United States to 1914'' and its sequel ''The History of Foreign Investment in the United States, 1914-1945''. She has been called the "''doyen'' of historians of international business," and has published numerous major studies in this field. Her most recent book is a study of the role of multinationals in global electrification authored together with Peter Hertner and William Hausmann and titled ''Global Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and International Finance in the History of Light and Power, 1878–2007''. She is a past president of the

Business History Conference The Business History Conference (BHC) is an academic organization that supports all aspects of research, writing, and teaching about business history and about the environment in which businesses operate. Founded in 1954, the BHC supports ongoing ...

, which awarded her its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkins, Mira 1931 births Living people American women economists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American historians Alumni of the University of Cambridge Radcliffe College alumni Florida International University faculty American women historians 21st-century American women