Peter Joseph Boettke (; born January 3, 1960) is an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

of the

Austrian School The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian schoo ...

. He is currently a professor of

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

and philosophy at George Mason University; the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism, vice president for research, and director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the

Mercatus Center The Mercatus Center is an American 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 policy experts, lobbyists, and gov ...

at GMU.

Early life and education

Boettke was born and raised in

Rahway Rahway () is a city in southern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A bedroom community of New York City, it is centrally located in the Rahway Valley region, in the New York metropolitan area. The city is southwest of Manhattan ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, to Fred and Elinor Boettke. In high school and college, he played for the school basketball and tennis teams. He attended

Thiel College Thiel College (, ) is a private college in Greenville, Pennsylvania. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is one of the smallest colleges or universities in the region with about 100 full-time and part time faculty ...

in Greenville,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and later

Grove City College Grove City College (GCC) is a private, conservative Christian liberal arts college in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1876 as a normal school, the college emphasizes a humanities core curriculum and offers 60 majors and 6 pre-profession ...

in nearby

Grove City, Pennsylvania Grove City is a borough in southeastern Mercer County, Pennsylvania, United States, located approximately north of Pittsburgh and south of Erie. At the 2020 census, the population was 7,894. It is part of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan ...

. At Grove City, he became interested in economics when he took a course taught by

Hans Sennholz Hans F. Sennholz (; ; 3 February 1922 – 23 June 2007) was a German-born American Austrian School economist and prolific author who studied under Ludwig von Mises. A Luftwaffe pilot during World War II, he was shot down over North Africa on 31 Au ...

, and there he developed his religious convictions. After completing a

B.A. 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 ...

(1983) in economics at Grove City, Boettke attended George Mason University where he earned an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(1987) and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

(1989) in economics. His thesis was ''The political economy of Soviet socialism, 1918–1928'' under the supervision of Don Lavoie.

Career

After receiving his doctoral degree, Boettke taught at several institutions, including Oakland University, Manhattan College and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

. In 1998, he returned to George Mason University as a faculty member. In 2004, he was named a Hayek Fellow at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

. He has also been a Faculty Fellow at the Charles University/Georgetown University American Institute for Political and Economic Studies in Prague and a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. He has also been made an affiliated member of the Philosophy Department at George Mason University and, in 2012, he was awarded a doctorate ''honoris causa'' in social sciences from

Universidad Francisco Marroquín Francisco Marroquín University (Spanish: ''Universidad Francisco Marroquín''), also known by the abbreviation UFM, is a private, secular university in Guatemala City, Guatemala. It describes its mission as "to teach and disseminate the ethical ...

. In addition to his academic positions, he is vice president for research at

and director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Until 2007, Boettke held the position of director of graduate studies for the Ph.D. program in economics at George Mason. He is the editor of George Mason University's ''Review of Austrian Economics'' and as vice president of the

Mont Pelerin Society The Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) is an international organization composed of economists, philosophers, historians, intellectuals and business leaders.Michael Novak, 'The Moral Imperative of a Free Economy', in '' The 4% Solution: Unleashing the E ...

for the 2018–2020 term. He was the society's president from 2016 to 2018.

Other pursuits

Boettke worked as a tennis instructor before pursuing his graduate degree in economics. After graduate school, he began coaching youth basketball and eventually coached at the high school and elite AAU level, qualifying for the AAU 16U National Championships in 2007. Several of his players reached college-level competition. In 2009, he was inducted as a coach into the local basketball Hall of Fame in Northern Virginia.

Analytical anarchism

Analytical anarchism is the name given by Boettke to the positive

political economy Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...

of anarchism, or anarchism from the economic point of view, in the libertarian tradition of

Murray Rothbard Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian ...

's ''

For a New Liberty ''For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto'' (1973; second edition 1978; third edition 1985) is a book by American economist and historian Murray Rothbard, in which the author promotes anarcho-capitalism. The work has been credited as an infl ...

'' (1973) and David Friedman's ''

The Machinery of Freedom ''The Machinery of Freedom'' is a nonfiction book by David D. Friedman that advocates an anarcho-capitalist society from a consequentialist perspective. The book was published in 1973, with a second edition in 1989 and a third edition in 2014. ...

'' (1973). Boettke claims that analytical anarchism has developed out of this tradition and is currently being pursued by economists such as

Peter Leeson Peter T. Leeson (born July 29, 1979) is an American economist and the Duncan Black Professor of Economics and Law at George Mason University. The website Big Think listed him in 2012 among "Eight of the World's Top Young Economists". He is a Fello ...

Edward Stringham Edward Peter Stringham (born January 18, 1975) is an Austrian School American economist, former President of the American Institute for Economic Research in Great Barrington, Massachusetts (until May 2021), and the Davis Professor of Economic Inn ...

and Christopher Coyne. These professors are related to Mercatus Center and to the faculty of economics at George Mason University.

Publications

Books * ''Living Economics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow'' (Independent Institute and Universidad Francisco Marroquin 2012) . * ''Context Matters: Institutions and Entrepreneurship'' (co-authored with

Christopher Coyne (professor) Christopher J. Coyne (born 1977) is the F.A. Harper Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the associate director of thF. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economicsat the Mercatus Center. Educa ...

) (Now Publishers, 2009) * ''The Battle of Ideas: Economics and the Struggle for a Better World'' * ''Is an Independent Non-Profit Sector Prone to Failure?'' (co-authored with David Prychitko) * ''The Political Economy of Soviet Socialism: The Formative Years, 1918–1928'' (Kluwer, 1990) . * ''Why Perestroika Failed: The Economics and Politics of Socialism Transformation'' (Routledge, 1993) . * ''Calculation and Coordination: Essays on Socialism and Transitional Political Economy'' (Routledge, 2001) . * ''The Economic Way of Thinking'' with Paul Heyne and

David Prychitko David L. Prychitko (born June 22, 1962) is an American economist of the Austrian School. Prychitko is a critic of Marxism, but defends the idea of workers' self-managed firms in a freed market system. Prychitko is a tenured professor at Northe ...

(Pearson, 2014) . * Books as editor * ''Market Process: Essays in Contemporary Austrian Economics'' with

. Edward Elgar, 1994. * ''The Collapse of Development Planning''. New York University Press, 1994. * ''The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics''. Elgar, 1994 * ''The Market Process'', 2 volumes, with

. Elgar, 1998 * ''The Legacy of F. A. Hayek: Politics, Philosophy, Economics'', 3 volumes. Edward Elgar, 1999 * ''Socialism and the Market: The Socialist Calculation Debate Revisited'', 9 volumes. Routledge, 2000. * ''The Legacy of Ludwig von Mises: Theory and History'', ed. with

. 2 vols. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 2006. * ''The Economic Point of View'', the first volume of

Israel Kirzner Israel Meir Kirzner (also Yisroel Mayer Kirzner ; born February 13, 1930) is a British-born American economist closely identified with the Austrian School. Early life and education The son of a well-known rabbi and Talmudist, Kirzner was born i ...

's Collected Works, edited with Frederic Sautet and published by Liberty Fund, December 2009. * ''Handbook On Contemporary Austrian Economics'', Edward Elgar, 2010. * ''Market Theory and the Price System'', the second volume of

's Collected Works, edited with Frederic Sautet and published by Liberty Fund, May 2011. * ''Essays on Capital'', the third volume of

's Collected Works, edited with Frederic Sautet and published by Liberty Fund, 2012. * ''The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics'', with Christopher Coyne. October 2015. * ''The Economic Role of the State'' (ed. with

). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2015.

Personal life

Boettke resides in Fairfax,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, with his wife and two sons.

References

External links

Boettke's Coordination Problem blog (with Christopher Coyne, Steve Horwitz, Peter Leeson, David Prychitko, and Frederic Sautet)

Boettke's biography
at the Mercatus Center
Boettke's biography
at the

Institute for Humane Studies The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) is a non-profit organization that promotes the teaching and research of classical liberalism in higher education in the United States. IHS offers funding opportunities, programs, and events for faculty and g ...

*
Liberty & Power
Group blog *
"A Market Nobel"
''The Wall Street Journal'' op-ed, October 16, 2007 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boettke, Peter 1960 births Living people American libertarians Austrian School economists George Mason University alumni George Mason University faculty Grove City College alumni Manhattan College faculty New York University faculty Oakland University faculty People from Rahway, New Jersey Stanford University staff Thiel College alumni Mackinac Center for Public Policy Mercatus Center Economists from New Jersey 21st-century American economists Member of the Mont Pelerin Society