FEE Faculty
Ronald Pestritto
Dr. Ronald J. Pestritto is Associate Professor of Political Science at Hillsdale College, where he teaches political philosophy, American political thought, and American politics, and holds the Charles and Lucia Shipley Chair in the American Constitution. He serves as a Senior Fellow of the College’s Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. He has published seven books, including Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism and the recently released American Progressivism. Among his other books are an edited collection of Wilson's speeches and writings -- Woodrow Wilson: The Essential Political Writings, a three-book series on American political thought, and Founding the Criminal Law: Punishment and Political Thought in the Origins of America. He has also served as a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University, has written widely on progressivism and the administrative state for publications such as the Wall Street ...
Isaac Morehouse
Isaac M. Morehouse is policy programs director at the Institute for Humane Studies. Morehouse previously worked at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy where he created and directed Students for a Free Economy. Prior to working at the Center, Morehouse served as a Michigan House legislative aide for three years, finishing his time at the House as chief of staff for a state representative. Morehouse has also helped start and run a small business involving telecommunications hardware and cable installation. Morehouse’s nonprofit work includes co-founding an organization that trains students for humanitarian trips overseas and serving as president of the Kalamazoo County Taxpayers Association. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Western Michigan University and a master's in economics from the University of Detroit Mercy. Morehouse lives in Falls Church, VA., with his wife and two kids.
Nikolai Wenzel
Nikolai G. Wenzel is Assistant Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College (Hillsdale, Michigan), where he holds the Wallace and Marion Reemelin Chair in Free-Market Economics. His research focuses primarily on constitutional political economy (comparative and theoretical), philosophy and economics, the work of F.A. Hayek, and wine economics. He is a member of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, and the American Association of Wine Economists. Dr. Wenzel is a former Foreign Service Office (by competitive examination) with the US State Department, where he served as Vice Consul and Special Assistant to the US Ambassador at the US Embassy in Mexico City. He is also former Director of Academic Program for the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Dr. Wenzel holds a BSFS cum laude in International Affairs from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, as well as an MA and PhD from George Mason University, where he wrote under Professor Richard E. Wagner.
Mark Hendrickson
Among other forms of employment, Mark Hendrickson has worked as a busboy, janitor, high school teacher, counselor at a high school for inner-city dropouts, aide to quadriplegic, editor, business manager, and college professor. He studied law at the University of Michigan, literature at Oxford, moral education at Harvard, and economics under the tutelage of the noted Austrian economist and former FEE president Hans F. Sennholz. He is the author of America’s March Toward Communism (1987). While serving as Director of Seminars at the Foundation for Economic Education in 1991, he created the “Fee Classics” series of books. Currently he is Adjunct Professor of Economics at Grove City College and Scholar for the Center for Vision & Values, which publishes his frequent commentaries on economic, political, and moral issues.
Peter Boettke
Peter J. Boettke is the Deputy Director of the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy, a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, and a professor in the economics department at George Mason University. Boettke was born and raised in New Jersey. He received his BA in economics from Grove City College and his PhD in economics from George Mason University. Before joining the faculty at George Mason University in 1998, he held faculty positions at Oakland University, Manhattan College and New York University. In addition, Boettke was a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University during the 1992-1993 academic year. He has been a visiting professor or scholar at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the Max Planck Institute for Research into Economic Systems in Jena, Germany, the Stockholm School of Economics, Central European University in Prague and Charles ...
Christopher Coyne
Christopher Coyne is an Assistant Professor of Economics at West Virginia University and the North American Editor of The Review of Austrian Economics. He also contributes to the blog, The Austrian Economists.
Anthony Carilli
Anthony M. Carilli is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Study of Political Economy at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. He earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from Northeastern University. He serves on the editorial board of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. He is on the Board of Scholars for the Virginia Institute of Public Policy. Dr. Carilli’s research interest are varied; he has published papers on rural firefighting, NASCAR, social capital, Austrian business cycle theory, and monetary regimes, etc. His 2001 paper Expectations in Austrian Business Cycle Theory: An Application of the Prisoner’s Dilemma co-authored with Greg Dempster won the 2002 Smith Center prize for best paper in Austrian Economics. Outside of academics Dr. Carilli serves as a volunteer firefighter and baseball umpire. He umpired for professionally for four years in the independent Northern League, where he worked the Championship Series in his final season. He has worked many Virginia State High School playoff games including quarter-final, semi-final, and championship games. Most of his ...
John Tillman
John Tillman serves as Chairman and CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute. A successful entrepreneur, John has built and led organizations in the arenas of political activism, retailing, e-commerce, and internet access. His years of experience in the business world have given him firsthand knowledge of the power of free markets and the importance of accountable government. He previously served as president and COO of the Sam Adams Alliance and Foundation during their start-up phase. He has appeared in media outlets ranging from Fox News to National Public Radio, and is a regular guest on top Chicago radio shows including Don Wade & Roma and the Jerry Agar show.
Mario Rizzo
Mario Rizzo received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is an associate professor of Economics at New York University. His areas of interest include Austrian Economics, Law and Economics, Microeconomics, Ethics and Economics, and the Philosophy of Science. He has authored Economics of Time and Ignorance: 1996 Intro Survey and Time, Uncertainty and Disequilibrium: Exploration of Austrian Themes. He has contributed to Real Time and Relative Indeterminacy in Economic Theory and been published in many news outlets, including Forbes Magazine and the Wall Street Journal.
Ivan Pongracic
Dr. Ivan Pongracic Jr. is an associate professor of economics at Hillsdale College, where he holds the William E. Hibbs/Ludwig von Mises Chair in Economics and where he has been teaching since 2000. He earned his PhD in 2004 from George Mason University. He also holds a BS degree in aerospace engineering from Purdue University. Prior to coming to Hillsdale he taught at Indiana Wesleyan University and George Mason University. Dr. Pongracic has also worked for and been involved in various ways with the Foundation for Economic Education, Mercatus Center at George Mason University and Young America's Foundation. His first book, “Employees and Entrepreneurship: Spontaneity and Co-ordination in Non-hierarchical Business Organization,” came out in the Spring of 2009, published by Edward Elgar.
James Otteson
James Otteson is a professor of Philosophy and Economics at Yeshiva University in New York and the Charles G. Koch Senior Fellow at The Fund for American Studies in Washington, DC. He completed his Ph.D. work at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life and Actual Ethics, the latter of which won the 2007 Templeton Award. He has just completed a book entitled simply Adam Smith, which Continuum is publishing as part of its “Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers” series.
Peter Lewin
Peter Lewin is a professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Dallas. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He has extensive teaching experience and is widely published in journals such as the Independent Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Review of Austrian Economics, International Journal of Management Review, Constitutional Political Economy, and Advances in Austrian Economics.
Pete Leeson
Pete Leeson is a professor of Economics at George Mason University. He is a Distinguished Scholar for the Center for the Study of Political Economy at Hampden-Sydney College, resides on the executive committee for the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics and the board of scholars for the Virginia Institute for Public Policy. He has published many articles and books. His latest book is due out in 2009, The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates.
Israel Kirzner
Israel Kirzner is Emeritus Professor of Economics at New York University. He is widely published (some of his books include: The Economic Point of View, Market Theory and the Price System, An Essay on Capital, Competition and Entrepreneurship, Perception, Opportunity and Profit Studies in the Theory of Entrepreneurship, Discovery, Capitalism and Distributive Justice). Also, he has published many articles and edited both books and journals. He resides in New York.
Robert Higgs
Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy for The Independent Institute and Editor of the Institute’s quarterly journal, The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, and the University of Economics, Prague. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Gary Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Defense of Liberty, Thomas Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties, and the Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty.
David Hart
David Hart was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. He did his undergraduate work at Macquarie University, Sydney, writing a thesis on the radical anti-statist thought of the Belgian/French political economist Gustave de Molinari. After spending a year in Germany studying German Imperialism and the origins of the First World War at the University of Mainz, he completed an M.A. in history at Stanford University. While at Stanford he worked on student programs for the Institute for Humane Studies (when it was located at Menlo Park, California) where he was founding editor of Humane Studies Review. He received a Ph.D. in history from King’s College, Cambridge on the work of two leading French classical liberals of the early 19th century, Charles Come and Charles Dunoyer who pioneered a liberal class theory of history. He then taught for 15 years in the Department of History at the University of Adelaide in South Australia where he was awarded the University teaching prize. Since 2001 he ...
Roger Garrison
Roger Garrison is a professor of Economics at Auburn University. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Virginia, and his areas of interest and research include Austrian Economic Theory and Macroeconomics. He is the author of Time and Money, and has lectured all over the world, including at the London School of Economics.
Burt Folsom
Burt Folsom is a professor of History at Hillsdale College and a senior fellow in economic education for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He is FEE’s senior historian. He has published many articles for the Mackinac Center and has published many books, including The Myth of the Robber Barons, and Urban Capitalists. His latest book is New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s Economic Legacy Damaged America. He did his Ph.D. work at the University of Pittsburgh.
Daniel D’Amico
Daniel D’Amico is an assistant professor of Economics at Loyola University New Orleans. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University. His research interests include Political Economy, Comparative Institutions, Economics of Crime and Punishment, Economics of Culture, Austrian Economics, Public Choice, New Institutional Economics, and Economic History.
Stephen Davies
Stephen Davies attended the University of St. Andrews from 1972 to 1976, and graduated with a First Class degree in History. He also obtained his Ph.D. from the same university in 1984. His dissertation was on the Scottish criminal justice system before the abolition of private courts. Since 1979, he has taught at the Manchester Metropolitan University where he is now a senior lecturer. He has published a number of books and articles. His books include The Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought (which he edited with Nigel Ashford) and Empiricism and History. He is not a supporter of Manchester United!
Paul Cwik
Paul Cwik is an associate professor of Economics at Mount Olive College. He has earned a B.A. from Hillsdale College, Michigan, an M.A. from Tulane University in Louisiana, and a Ph.D. from Auburn University in Alabama. He has taught classes at several colleges and universities such as Auburn University, Campbell University and Walsh College. He has been published in academic journals that include: The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, New Perspectives on Political Economy: A Bilingual Interdisciplinary Journal, and Business Ethics: A European Review.
Bryan Caplan
Bryan Caplan is an Associate Professor at George Mason University, and the author of The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies. His writings have been published in the American Economic Review, the Economic Journal, the Journal of Law and Economics, the New York Times, the Wall St. Journal, the Washington Post and many other outlets. Caplan has appeared on 20/20, C-SPAN, and the BBC. He is currently writing a new book, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, due in 2011 with Basic Books. He blogs at EconLog, named a top economics blog by the Wall St. Journal.
Bill Butos
Bill Butos is a professor of economics at Trinity College. His research interests include monetary theory and policy, business cycles, the economics of science, and Austrian economics. He is a Faculty Fellow at the New York University Austrian Economics Program. He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Private Enterprise.
Don Boudreaux
Don Boudreaux is Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University. From 1997-2001, he was president of the Foundation for Economic Education. He has lectured all over the world on many different topics, including international trade and the nature of law. He has been published in many newspapers and journals, including The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, The Washington Times, and the Cato Journal.
Walter Block
Walter Block is an economist of the Austrian school, and a philosopher of the libertarian/anarcho-capitalist bent. He is a professor of Economics at Loyola University New Orleans and is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics at Columbia University, and has written over 500 articles for a variety of journals, including The Austrian Review of Economics, The Journal of Labor Economics, and Cultural Dynamics.
Brad Birzer
Brad Birzer is the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in History and Director of the American Studies Program at Hillsdale College. He completed his undergraduate work at Notre Dame, and his Ph.D. at Indiana University-Bloomington. He has authored many books, including The American Democrat and Other Political Writings, The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth.
Gregory Rehmke
Gregory Rehmke directs programs for Economic Thinking/E Pluribus Unum Films, and is a program consultant for the Foundation for Economic Education. He has been a speaker at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Houston World Affairs Council seminars for teachers and Institute for Economic Studies-Europe seminars for college students. He is co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Global Economics. Economic Education (FEE)
Bill Mesa
Bill Mesa is an Associate Professor of Management and Accounting at Colorado Christian University. His bachelor's and master's degrees are from New Mexico State University, and he completed his Doctor of Management degree from Colorado Technical University. He has over fifteen years of experience as a financial analyst, accountant, and strategic analyst for Fortune 500 corporations and for Federal Government Facilities. He is the co-editor for the Journal of Applied Business Research and the Clute Institute for Academic Research. He has ten years of teaching experience, both full and part-time. He has done consulting for international corporations and has been instrumental in leadership enterprises for the Asian Development Institute.
Bruce Rottman
Bruce Rottman received his MA from San Francisco State University and BA from Calvin College, and has taught economics and history in Florida, California, Washington, and Wisconsin. He was both a Lambe Fellow and a Salvatori Fellow, won first place in Wisconsin’s Excellence in Teaching Economics in 1997, and was one of five national winners in the NASDAQ Excellence in Economics Education contest in 2000.
Gene Callahan
Gene Callahan is an American economist of the Austrian school, an adjunct scholar with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, charter member of the Michael Oakeshott Association, and has authored two books: Economics for Real People and PUCK. Also, he has been published in a variety of journals, including Reason, The Freeman, The Free Market, Slick Times, NYU Journal of Law and Liberty, and Review of Austrian Economics. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Sanford Ikeda
Sanford Ikeda is a professor of Economics at Purchase College in New York. He did his Ph.D. work at New York University. His areas of interest include the dynamics of interventionism, public policy, economy of cities, antitrust, and Japanese drumming. He is the vice president for the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics. He has published many books and articles, including Dynamics of the Mixed Economy, “The Role of Social Capital in the Market Process,” and “How Compatible are Public Choice and Austrian Political Economy?”
Lawrence White
Lawrence White is Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He previously taught at New York University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Missouri – St. Louis. He received his A.B. in Economics from Harvard University, and both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles. His major areas of research and teaching are monetary theory and policy, economic history, and the history of economic ideas. He is the author of Free Banking in Britain, Competition and Currency, and The Theory of Monetary Institutions. His articles have appeared in the American Economic Review and other leading professional journals.
Steve Horwitz
Steven Horwitz is a professor of Economics at St. Lawrence University in New York. He is the author of two books, Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective (Routledge, 2000) and Monetary Evolution, Free Banking, and Economic Order (Westview, 1992), and he has written extensively on Austrian economics, Hayekian political economy, monetary theory and history, and the economics and social theory of gender and the family. A member of the Mont Pelerin Society, he completed his MA and PhD in economics at George Mason University and received his A.B. in economics and philosophy from The University of Michigan.
Benjamin Powell
Benjamin Powell is an assistant professor of Economics at Suffolk University, a senior economist at The Beacon Hill Institute, and a research fellow with the Independent Institute. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University. He is the editor of Making Poor Nations Rich: Entrepreneurship and the Process of Development and author of more than 30 scholarly articles and policy studies. His research findings have been reported in more than 100 popular press outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, Financial Times, Christian Science Monitor, and others. He has spoken publicly at many news outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, Showtime, and National Public Radio.
Doug Bandow
Doug Bandow is the vice president of policy for Citizen Outreach, a non-profit, non-partisan organization committed to reducing the power of government. He is a senior fellow with the Cato Institute, and specialize in current events, and foreign aid, religion, environmental protection, foreign policy, education, and the drug war. He has also worked as special assistant to President Reagan and has been the editor of the political magazine Inquiry. Major newspapers publish Bandow’s weekly syndicated column across the country. He writes regularly for leading publications such as Fortune magazine and speaks frequently at academic conferences, on college campuses, and to business groups.
