Donald Joseph Boudreaux (born September 10, 1958) is an American economist, author, professor, and co-director of the Program on the American Economy and Globalization at the

Mercatus Center The Mercatus Center is an American Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian, free-market-oriented non-profit think tank. Located at George Mason University and directed by the American economist Tyler Cowen, the Mercatus Center works with ...

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...

Early life and education

Boudreaux received a Ph.D. in economics from

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

in 1986 with a thesis on "Contracting, Organization, and Monetary Instability: Studies in the Theory of the Firm." He received a J.D. from the

University of Virginia School of Law The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law or UVA Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as part of his "academical v ...

in 1992.

Academic career

Boudreaux was an assistant professor of economics at

, from 1985 to 1989. He was an associate professor of legal studies and economics at

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

, from 1992 to 1997, and president of the

Foundation for Economic Education The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is an American conservative, libertarian economic think tank. Founded in 1948 in New York City, FEE is now headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a member of the State Policy Network. FEE offers pub ...

, from 1997 to 2001. He is now professor of economics at

, where he served as chairman of the economics department, from 2001 to 2009. During the spring 1996 semester, he was an Olin Visiting Fellow in Law and Economics at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Law School A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

. Boudreaux is an adjunct scholar at the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...

, a

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

-based

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

Writings

He is the author of the 2007 and 2012 books ''Globalization'' and ''Hypocrites and Half-Wits'', respectively. He contributes a column twice a month to the ''

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review The ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', also known as "the Trib," is the second largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Although it transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, it rem ...

'' and contributes to the ''Cafe Hayek'' blog.

Other activities

Boudreaux has lectured in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

on topics including the nature of law,

competition law Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

and

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

, and

international trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy) In most countries, such trade represents a significant ...

. He spoke at an Institute for Economic Studies seminar on Europe & Liberty in

Deva, Romania Deva (; Hungarian: ''Déva'', Hungarian pronunciation: ; German: ''Diemrich'', ''Schlossberg'', ''Denburg''; Latin: ''Sargetia''; Turkish: ''Deve'', ''Devevar'') is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, on the left bank o ...

, in 2007. He spoke at the Freedom Summit in 2001 and 2010.

Views and opinions

Boudreaux has publicly criticized

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...

laureate

Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was th ...

, stating that Krugman frequently "commits elementary errors" when discussing economics. Boudreaux argued in October 2009 that insider trading "is impossible to police and helpful to markets and investors... Far from being so injurious to the economy that its practice must be criminalized, insiders buying and selling stocks based on their knowledge play a critical role in keeping asset prices honest—in keeping prices from lying to the public about corporate realities." In a January 2013 article for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', Boudreaux and Mark Perry argued that the "progressive trope... that America's middle class has stagnated economically since the 1970s" is "spectacularly wrong." In a similar vein Boudreaux and Liya Palagashvili published an article in ''The Wall Street Journal'' in March 2014 discussing recent scholarship which shows that, contrary to what had been reported before by, wages have not decoupled from productivity in the US and Britain.

Books

* ''Globalization (Greenwood Guides to Business and Economics)'', 2007 * ''Hypocrites & Half-Wits: A Daily Dose of Sanity from Cafe Hayek'', 2012 * ''The Essential Hayek'', 2015 free on kindle

Op-eds

* "Trade Is Not a Job Killer," ''The New York Times'', 3/28/2018. * "'Price Gouging' After a Disaster Is Good for the Public," ''The Wall Street Journal'', 10/3/2017. * "Working Overtime to Avoid the Truth," ''The Wall Street Journal'', 4/7/16. * "The Myth of the Great Wages Decoupling," ''The Wall Street Journal'', 3/6/14. * "The Myth of a Stagnant Middle Class," ''The Wall Street Journal'', 1/23/13.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boudreaux, Donald J. 1958 births Living people 21st-century American economists American libertarians The American Spectator people Auburn University alumni Austrian School economists Cato Institute people Clemson University faculty Foundation for Economic Education George Mason University faculty Libertarian economists Mercatus Center Non-interventionism University of Virginia School of Law alumni 20th-century American economists Economists from Louisiana People from New Orleans Cornucopians