Richard Edward Wagner (born April 28, 1941) is an American economist. He is 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 anal ...

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 ...

. He works primarily in the fields of

public finance Public finance is the study of the role of the government in the economy. It is the branch of economics that assesses the government revenue and government expenditure of the public authorities and the adjustment of one or the other to achiev ...

and

public choice Public choice, or public choice theory, is "the use of economic tools to deal with traditional problems of political science".Gordon Tullock, 9872008, "public choice," '' The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics''. . Its content includes the ...

. Wagner received his doctorate in economics from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

, studying under

James M. Buchanan James McGill Buchanan Jr. (; October 3, 1919 – January 9, 2013) was an American economist known for his work on public choice theory originally outlined in his most famous work co-authored with Gordon Tullock in 1962, ''The Calculus of Consen ...

. Wagner's work centers on the notion that macroeconomic phenomena are emergent, rather than being objects of choice. In addition to Buchanan, major influences on his thought include

Carl Menger Carl Menger von Wolfensgrün (; ; 28 February 1840 – 26 February 1921) was an Austrian economist and the founder of the Austrian School of economics. Menger contributed to the development of the theories of marginalism and marginal utility ...

and

Thomas Schelling Thomas Crombie Schelling (April 14, 1921 – December 13, 2016) was an American economist and professor of foreign policy, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland, College ...

Selected publications

* ''The Fiscal Organization of American Federalism'' (1971) * "Revenue Structure, Fiscal Illusion, and Budgetary Choice" in ''Public Choice'' vol. 25, no. 1 (1976) * "Institutional Constraints and Local Community Formation" in ''American Economic Review'' vol. 66, no. 2 (1976) * ''Democracy in Deficit: The Political Legacy of Lord Keynes'' (co-authored with Buchanan) (1977) * ''Public Finance: Revenues and Expenditures in a Democratic Society'' (1983) * ''To Promote the General Welfare: Market Processes vs. Political Transfers'' (1989) * ''The Economics of Smoking'' (co-authored with

Robert Tollison Robert D. Tollison (1942–October 24, 2016) was an American economist who specialized in public choice theory. Education A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Tollison attended local Wofford College where he earned an A.B. in business admin ...

) (1991) * "Romance, Realism, and Economic Reform" (co-authored with Tollison) in ''Kyklos'' vol. 44, no. 1 (1991) * ''Trade Protection in the United States'' (co-authored with Charles Rowley and Willem Thorbecke) (1995) * ''Fiscal Sociology and the Theory of Public Finance'' (2007)

References

Richard E. Wagner's CV at GMU

External links

* Richard E. Wagner
"Public Choice and the Diffusion of Classic Italian Public Finance"
Living people 21st-century American economists George Mason University faculty 1941 births University of Virginia alumni American male non-fiction writers Academic journal editors Economists from North Dakota 20th-century American economists 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American male writers {{US-economist-stub