Professor of Economics, JIN Chair at the Mercatus Center

Curriculum Vitae

Daniel B. Klein

Professor of Economics, JIN Chair at the Mercatus Center

George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22031

Home page:

January 2016

This is primarily a list of publications with links. All activities listed in reverse chronology.

My two chief ongoing projects are editing Econ Journal Watch and leading the Adam Smith Program at GMU Econ.

Education

Ph.D., Economics, New York University, defended 1989, conferred 1990.

B.S., Economics, George Mason University, 1984.

Employment

JIN Chair, Mercatus Center, George Mason University, 2014-present

Professor of Economics, George Mason University, 2005-present.

Associate Professor of Economics, Santa Clara University, September 1997-2005.

Assistant Professor of Economics, University of California, Irvine, 1989-1996.

Visiting Scholar, Department of Economics, Stanford University with Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Institute for Humane Studies, 1988-1989.

Professional Roles and Affiliations

Editor, Econ Journal Watch(econjwatch.org)

Director, Adam Smith Program at GMU Econ

Member, Mont Pelerin Society

Academic Advisory Council and Associate Fellow, Ratio Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Adjunct Fellow, Cato Institute, Washington, DC.

Research Fellow, Independent Institute, Oakland, California

Adjunct Scholar, Reason Public Policy Institute, Los Angeles, California

Member, Academic Advisory Council, Institute of Economic Affairs, London, England

Member, Academic Advisory Council, Globalisation Institute, London, England

Member, Advisory Editorial Board, Society journal

Member, Advisory Editorial Board, Journal des Économistes et des Étude Humaines

Member, Council of Scholars, Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington, New York

Awards and Prizes

All-time best paper award (one of just a few selected) of The Independent Review, awarded 2009, for “Quality-and-Safety Assurance: How Voluntary Social Processes Remedy Their Own Shortcomings,” which appeared in 1998 (listed below). Award ceremony at APEE conference, Las Vegas, 2010.

Spontaneous Order Award, from the Fund for the Study of Spontaneous Order at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, June 2004.

Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education, awarded by the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, for the Civil Society Institute, Dec. 2003.

Breetwor Fellowship for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 academic years, Santa Clara University.

Extra-Ordinary Performance Award, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, for performance during the 2000-2001 year. Award for “triple-crown” outstanding performance in research, teaching, and service.

Smith Prize in Austrian Economics, 2000, awarded annually by a Selection Committee of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics for Best Article (in any journal), for the article:”Discovery and the Deepself,” Review of Austrian Economics, 11, 1999: 47-76.

Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award, 1998, given by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation for outstanding public-policy book; for Curb Rights: A Foundation for Free Enterprise in Urban Transit (Brookigs, 1997).

Second prize in essay contest held by the Mont Pelerin Society on "Responsibility and Choice in a Free Society," for essay "Liberty, Dignity, and Responsibility." The award include a cash prize and a travel grant to the 1996 General Meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Vienna, September, 1996.

Best dissertation award (Ehrlich Prize), 1988-89 academic year, Department of Economics, New York University.

RESEARCH

Books

Author: Knowledge and Coordination: A Liberal Interpretation. Oxford University Press, 2012 (paperback 2013).

Co-editor (with F.E. Foldvary): The Half-Life of Policy Rationales: How New Technology Affects Old Policy Issues, a volume about how new technology makes obsolete many of the standard arguments against free enterprise. New York University Press, 2003.

Editor: What Do Economists Contribute?, a volume of previous published articles by R. Coase, T. Schelling, F. Hayek, F. Graham, W. Hutt, I. Kirzner, D. McCloskey, C. Philbrook, and G. Tullock on being an economist; the central theme is that what society most needs from economists is instruction and enlightenment in the basics of the discipline. New York: New York University Press (softback and hardback), 1999; London: Macmillan (hardback), 1999. London: Palgrave (softback edition), 2001.

• Chinese translation: Law Press, China, 2005.

Editor: Reputation: Studies in the Voluntary Elicitation of Good Conduct, an interdisciplinary volume of articles, mostly previously published, on the emergence and maintenance of reputation and trust by nongovernmental means. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.

Co-author: Curb Rights: A Foundation for Free Enterprise in Urban Transit (with A. Moore and B. Reja). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, Washington D. C., 1997. The book argues that curb zones and bus stops are a crucial component of transit services. Many problems of urban transit can be traced to the commons problem existing at the curb. Privatizing curb zones in five-year leases would create a foundation for free enterprise in urban transit. The book won a 1998 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award from the Atlas Foundation. It has been reviewed in JEL, EJ, SEJ, Trans. Res., JAPA, Regulation, and elsewhere.

• Korean translation: Korean Research Institute of Transportation Industries, 2005.

Peer Reviewed Journals

(Econ Journal Watch articles are listed under a separate heading)

A Plea Regarding ‘Liberal,’ Modern Age 57(3), Summer 2015: 7-16. Also: Intercollegiate Review website, July 27, 2015. Link My piece was the target article of commentary by Charles C.W. Cooke (link) and John Zmirak (here), and I replied: “‘Liberal’ – Step One: A Reply to John Zmirak and Charles C.W. Cooke,” Intercollegiate Review website, July 30, 2015 (link).

A Demand for Encompassment: A Hayekian Experimental Parable about Political Psychology, w/Xiaofei Pan, Daniel Houser, and Gonzalo Schwarz, Rationality and Society 27(1), 2015: 70-95. Link

Allegory and Political Economy: A Reply to Gavin Kennedy, Adam Smith Review 8, 2015: 305-307. (A short reply to Kennedy’s review of my book Knowledge and Coordination.) Link

Ought as an Is: On the Positive-Normative Distinction, Studies in Emergent Order7, 2014: 56-73. Link

Unfolding the Allegory of Market Communication and Social Error and Correction, The Adam Smith Review 7,2014: 250-275. Link

Smith’s Attitude toward Rousseau (A review essay of Dennis C. Rasmussen’s book on Smith and Rousseau), The Adam Smith Review 7, 2014: 323-329. Link

The Forsaken-Liberty Syndrome: Looking at Published Judgments to Say Whether Economists Reach a Conclusion. American Journal of Economics and Sociology 71(5), Nov. 2012: 1250-1272. Link

Most Economists Welcome Ideological Openness, A Survey Indicates, (with William Davis, Bob Figgins, and David Hedengren), The Independent Review 17(2), Fall 2012: 227-231. Link

The Improprieties of the Pretense of Knowledge, The Independent Review 17(2), Fall 2012: 281-290. Link

Direct and Overall Liberty: Replies to Walter Block and Claudia Williamson, w/Michael Clark, Reason Papers 34(2): Oct. 2012: 133-143.Link

Competition as a Discovery Procedure: A Rejoinder to Professor Kirzner on Coordination and Discovery. Journal of Private Enterprise 27(1), Fall 2011: 121-144. Link

Against Overlordship, The Independent Review 16(2), Fall 2011: 165-171. Link

In Praise of Ideological Openness. Economic Affairs 31(3): 54-55. Link

On the Deliberate Centrality of an Invisible Hand: Reply to Gavin Kennedy, Ryan Hanley, and Craig Smith, w/B. Lucas. Economic Affairs 31(2), June 2011: 90-91. Link

In a Word or Two, Placed in the Middle: The Invisible Hand in Smith’s Tomes, w/B. Lucas, Economic Affairs 31(1), March 2011: 43-52. Link

• This is the lead article, followed by comments. Our reply is listed at the bullet immediately below.
• On the Deliberate Centrality of an Invisible Hand: A Reply to Gavin Kennedy, Ryan Hanley, and Craig Smith (w/B. Lucas), Economic Affairs 31(2), June 2011: 90-92. Link

The Music of Social Intercourse: Synchrony in Adam Smith, (w/M.J. Clark). The Independent Review 15(3), Winter 2011: 413-420. Link

From Weight Watchers to State Watchers: Towards a Narrative of Liberalism (A review essay of Alan S. Kahan’s Mind vs. Money: The War between Intellectuals and Capitalism), Review of Austrian Economics 23(4), 2010: 403-410. Link

Direct and Overall Liberty: Areas and Extent of Disagreement, w/ M.J. Clark. Reason Papers 32, Fall 2010: 41-66.Link

Liberty between the Lines in a Statist and Modernist Age: Unfolding the Adam Smith in Friedrich Hayek, Economic Affairs 30(3), Oct. 2010: 82-85.Link

Embarrassed as a Non-Left Professor?,Society 47: 377-78, 2010.Link

Knowledge Flat-talk: A Conceit of Supposed Experts and a Seduction to all, The Independent Review15(1), Summer 2010: 109-121.Link

Israel Kirzner on Coordination and Discovery, w/ J. Briggeman. Journal of Private Enterprise 25(2) 2010: 1-53. Link

• Competition as a Discovery Procedure: A Rejoinder to Professor Kirzner and Others on Coordination and Discovery, Journal of Private Enterprise, forthcoming. ssrn Link

In Defense of Dwelling in Great Minds: A Few Quotations from Michael Polanyi’s The Study of Man, Society47, 2010:83-84.Link

Conservative Magazines and the Presumption of Liberty: A Content Analysis on Sex, Gambling, and Drugs, w/ J. Briggeman. The Independent Review 14(2), Fall 2009: 289-299.Link

Groupthink in Academia: Majoritarian Departmental Politics and the Professional Pyramid, w/ C. Stern,The Independent Review 13(4): 585-600.Link(Also inThe Politically Correct University: Problems, Scope, and Reforms, ed. Robert Maranto, Richard Redding, and Frederick Hess, American Enterprise Institute, 2009: 79-98.)

• Translated into Chinese by Wu Wanwei for a book “On Public Intellectuals” (Beijing: New Star Publishers, 2012).

Concatenate Coordination and Mutual Coordination, w/A. Orsborn, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 72, 2009: 176-87. Link

Resorting to Statism to Find Meaning: Conservatism and Leftism,Society 46, 2009: 137-46. Link

Liberal versus Conservative Stinks, w/C. Stern, Society, 45(6), Nov/Dec 2008: 488-495.Link

Do Off-Label Drug Practices Argue against FDA Efficacy Requirements? A Critical Analysis of Physicians’Argumentation for Initial Efficacy Requirements, w/ A. Tabarrok, American Journal of Economics and Sociology 67(5), Nov 2008: 743-775. Link

Reply to Zipp and Fenwick,w/ C. Stern,correspondence, Public Opinion Quarterly 71(3), Fall 2007: 479-81.

Is There a Free-Market Economist in the House? The Policy Views of American Economic Association Members, w/ C. Stern,American Journal of Economics and Sociology 66(2), April 2007: 309-334. Link

Reply to de Fontaine,w/ C. Stern, correspondence,Academic Questions 20(1), Winter 2006-07: 7-8.

Political Scientists’ Policy Views and Voting, w/C. Stern, The Political Science Reviewer 35, 2006: 416-25.

Free Parking versus Free Markets: A Review Essay of Donald Shoup’s The High Cost of Free Parking,The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy 11(2), Fall 2006: 289-297. Link

Sociology and Classical Liberalism, w/ C. Stern, The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy11 (Summer 2006): 37-52.Link

• selected for reprinting to appear in the inaugural issue of Culture and Civilization 1 (2009): 124-142.

Professors and Their Politics: The Policy Views of Social Scientists, w/ C. Stern. Critical Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Politics and Society 17, 2005 (3&4): 257-303.Link

Faculty Partisan Affiliations in All Disciplines: A Voter-Registration Study, w/C. Cardiff, Critical Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Politics and Society 17, 2005 (3&4): 237-255.Link

• Reprinted in Political Knowledge, ed. Jeffrey Friedman and Shterna Friedman. London: Routledge. Link

Economists’ Policy Views and Voting, w/ C. Stern, Public Choice 126 (March 2006): 331-342.Link

Democrats and Republicans in Anthropology and Sociology: How Do They Differ on Public Policy Issues?, w/ C. Stern, The American Sociologist, 35(4), Winter 2004: 79-86.

Political Diversity in Six Disciplines,” w/ C. Stern. Academic Questions 18(1), Winter 2005: 40-52.Link

Voter Registration of Berkeley and Stanford Faculty, w/ A. Western, Academic Questions18(1), Winter 2005: 53-65.Link

• Note: The Klein-Stern and Klein-Western studies have received notice at The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal, The Economist, Science, The American Enterprise, National Review, The Weekly Standard, CNN News, Fox News, and many other newspapers, magazines, television, and radio programs.

The People’s Romance: Why People Love Government (as Much as They Do),The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy10, Summer 2005: 5-37.Link

Mere Libertarianism: Blending Hayek and Rothbard, Reason Papers, 27, Fall 2004: 7-42.Link

Turnpikes and Toll Roads in Nineteenth-Century America, w/ J. Majewski, EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples, entry added August 12 2004.Link

Experiment on Entrepreneurial Discovery: An Attempt to Demonstrate the Conjecture of Hayek and Kirzner,” w/ H. Demmert,Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 50, 2003:295-310.Link

The Half-life of Policy Rationales: How New Technology Affects Old Policy Issues, w/ F. Foldvary,Knowledge, Technology & Policy, 15(3) Fall 2002: 82-92.Link

• Anthologized in C.M. Newmark, Readings in Applied Microeconomics: The Power of the Market (NY: Routledge, 2009): 197-207.

Asymmetric Interpretations,Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, March 2002: 23-29.Link

A Plea to Economists Who Favor Liberty: Assist the Everyman, Eastern Economic Journal, 27(2), Spring 2001:185-202. Also, “Response to Comments” [in the symposium, my lead article was commented on by Gordon Tullock, Deirdre McCloskey, Israel M. Kirzner, C.A.E. Goodhart, Robert H. Frank, and James K. Galbraith], Eastern Economic Journal, 27(2), Spring 2001: 231-238.

• Jointly published as A Plea to Economists Who Favour Liberty: Assist the Everyman, Occasional Paper 118, London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 2001, (105 pp.).

The Demand for and Supply of Assurance, Economic Affairs 21(1), March 2001: 4-11.

• Reprinted (expanded version) in Market Failure or Success: The New Debate, eds. T. Cowen and E. Crampton. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2003: 172-192.
• The expanded version selected for Swedish translationby N. Berggren as Efterfrågan och tillgången på garantier in Marknad och Moral – En Antologi, ed. N. Bergreen Ratio Institute, 2007: 81-103.

Credit Information Reporting: Why Free Speech Is Vital to Social Accountability and Consumer Opportunity, The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy, Winter 2001, 325-44.Link

Policy Medicine versus Policy Quackery: Economists Against the FDA, Knowledge, Technology and Policy, Spring 2000, 13(1), 92-101.

The Waysof John Gray: A Libertarian Commentary, The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy, Summer 1999, 63-89.Link

• Reprinted in The Challenge of Liberty: Classical Liberalism Today, ed. R. Higgs and C. Close. Oakland: The Independent Institute, 2006: 325-353.

Discovery and the Deepself,Review of Austrian Economics, 1999, 11, 47-76.Link

Planning and the Two Coordinations, With Illustration in Urban Transit,Planning and Markets, 1998.Link

Quality and Safety Assurance: How Voluntary Social Processes Remedy Their Own Shortcomings,The Independent Review: A Quarterly Journal of Political Economy, Spring 1998, 537-555.Link

• Received award in 2009 for one of the all-time best papers in the journal.
• Reprinted in Self-Regulation in the Civil Society, ed. A.V. Desai, published by Centre for Civil Society, New Dehli, India, 1998.
• Reprinted in Assurance and Trust in a Great Society by D. B. Klein. Occasional Paper Number Two. Irvington, New York: Foundation for Economic Education, 2000.

Convention, Social Order, and the Two Coordinations,Constitutional Political Economy, 1997, 8, 319-335.Link

Curb Rights: Eliciting Competition and Entrepreneurship in Urban Transit, w/ A. Moore and B. Reja, The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy, Summer 1997, pp. 29-54.Link

• Reprinted in Entrepreneurial Economics, ed. A. Tabarrok. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002: 275-98.

Liberty, Dignity, and Responsibility: The Moral Triad of a Good Society, The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy 1(3), Winter 1997, pp. 325-351.Link

• Reprinted (slightly revised) in 3 Libertarian Essays by D.B. Klein. Irvington, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1998.
• Reprinted in The Challenge of Liberty: Classical Liberalism Today, ed. R. Higgs and C. Close. Oakland: The Independent Institute, 2006: 71-96.

Use, Esteem, and Profit in Voluntary Provision: Toll Roads in California, 1850 - 1902, w/ C. Yin, Economic Inquiry, October 1996, pp. 678-692.Link

Clean on Paper, Dirty on the Road: Troubles with California's Smog Check, w/ A. Glazer and C. Lave, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, January 1995, pp. 85-92.

If Government is So Villainous, How Come Government Officials Don't Seem Like Villains?,Economics & Philosophy 10, 1994, 91-106.

• Reprinted (significantly revised) in 3 Libertarian Essays by D.B. Klein. Irvington, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1998.
• Revised andwith a new postscript in Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 8:The Dynamics of Intervention: Regulation and Redistribution in the Mixed Economy, ed. P. Kurrild-Klitgaard, Elsevier publishers, 2005: 223-244.

Plank Road Fever in Antebellum America, w/ J. Majewski, New York History, 1994, 39-65.Link

A Game-Theoretic Rendering of Promises and Threats, w/ B. O'Flaherty, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 1993, 295-314.Link

How to Franchise Highways, w/ G. J. Fielding, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, 27 (2), May 1993, 113-130.Link

• Reprinted in Transport Policy, edited by Kenneth Button and Roger Stough. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
• Reprinted in Japanese translation in two parts in Kosokudoro to Jidosha (Expressways and Automobiles), 1994, Vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 51-59, no. 3, pp. 59-65.

Responding to Relative Decline: The Plank Road Boom of Antebellum New York, w/ J. Majewski and C.Baer, The Journal of Economic History, March 1993, 106-122.Link

Economy, Community and Law: The Turnpike Movement in New York, 1797-1845, w/ J. Majewski, Law & Society Review, 26 (3), Fall 1992, 469-512.Link

Promise Keeping in the Great Society: A Model of Credit Information Sharing, Economics and Politics, July 1992, 117-136.Link

• Reprinted in Reputation: Studies in the Voluntary Elicitation of Good Conduct, ed. D. B. Klein. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.

Private Toll Roads: Learning from the Nineteenth Century, w/ G. J. Fielding, Transportation Quarterly, No. 7, July 1992, 321-341.

Go Ahead and Let Him Try: A Plea for Egonomic Laissez-Faire, Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 35(1), 1992, 3-20.

• Reprinted (slightly revised) in 3 Libertarian Essays by D.B. Klein. Irvington, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1998.
• Reprinted in Peter J. Boettke, ed., The Intellectual Legacy of F. A. Hayek in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Vol. 2. London: Edward Elgar, 2000.

The Microfoundations of Rules versus Discretion,Constitutional Political Economy, Autumn 1990, 1-19.Link

The Voluntary Provision of Public Goods? The Turnpike Companies of Early America,Economic Inquiry, October 1990, 788-812.Link

• Reprinted in The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society, eds. D. Beito et al. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002: 76-101.
• Reprinted in Famous Fables of Economics: Myths of Market Failures, ed. D. Spulber. London: Basil Blackwell Publishers, 2002: 49-69.

Tie-ins and the Market Provision of Collective Goods, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, 1987, 451-474.

Deductive Economic Methodology in the French Enlightenment: Condillac and Destutt de Tracy,History of Political Economy, Spring 1985, 51-71.Link

Articles in Econ Journal Watch

[I am the chief editor of Econ Journal Watch. EJW is a peer reviewed journal, indexed by SSCI and the AEA.]

Why Weren’t Left Economists More Opposed and More Vocal on the Export-Import Bank?, with Veronique de Rugy and Ryan Daza. Econ Journal Watch 12(3), September 2015: 346-359.Link

Of Its Own Accord: Adam Smith on the Export-Import Bank, Econ Journal Watch 12(3), September 2015: 379-387. Link