Daniel Bruce Klein (born January 16, 1962) is an American 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 ...

and an Associate Fellow of the Swedish

Ratio Institute The Ratio Institute is an independent Swedish research institute focusing on the conditions for enterprise, entrepreneurship and market economy and political change. The institute's infrastructure is financed by the Confederation of Swedish Enterpri ...

. Much of his research examines the works of

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——� ...

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public ...

questions,

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

political philosophy, and the sociology of

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

. He is the chief editor of '' Econ Journal Watch''. Klein received his doctorate in economics from

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 1990. He was a visiting scholar at the City University in Stockholm and the Department of Economics, Stanford University.

Debates

In an article appearing in the August 2004 ''Econ Journal Watch'' he criticized

libertarian paternalism Libertarian paternalism is the idea that it is both possible and legitimate for private and public institutions to affect behavior while also respecting freedom of choice, as well as the implementation of that idea. The term was coined by behav ...

, espoused by

Cass Sunstein Cass Robert Sunstein (born September 21, 1954) is an American legal scholar known for his studies of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, law and behavioral economics. He is also ''The New York Times'' best-selling author ...

and

Richard Thaler Richard H. Thaler (; born September 12, 1945) is an American economist and the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2015, Thaler was p ...

, as oxymoronic.http://www.econjournalwatch.org/pdf/KleinCommentAugust2004.pdf He argued against what he perceived as an overly loose and weak definition of

libertarianism Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

on the grounds that Thaler and Sunstein made no meaningful distinction between liberty and coercion. In failing to define the concepts of liberty and coercion as fundamentally dissimilar processes. Libertarian paternalism uses a hyperrational behavior model of human nature as a definition for libertarianism, and neglects alternative definitions such as those advanced by

and

F.A. Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, Jurisprudence, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical lib ...

Selected publications

"The Voluntary Provision of Public Goods?: The Turnpike Companies of Early America"
in ''Economic Inquiry'' vol. 28 (1990)
"Promise Keeping in the Great Society: A Model of Credit Information Sharing"
in ''Economics and Politics'' vol. 4 (1992)
''Curb Rights: A Foundation for Free Enterprise in Urban Transit''
(co-authored with Adrian T. Moore and Binyam Reja) (1997)
"Discovery and the Deepself"
in '' Review of Austrian Economics'' vol. 11 (1999)
"The Demand for and Supply of Assurance"
in ''Economic Affairs'' vol. 21 (2001)
"Economists' Policy Views and Voting"
(co-authored with Charlotta Stern) in ''Public Choice'' vol. 126 (2006)
"I Was Wrong, and So Are You"
in ''The Atlantic'' vol. 307 (2011)
''Knowledge and Coordination: A Liberal Interpretation''
(2012)

Notes

External links

Klein's bio
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 ...

Klein's website at GMU

Econ Journal Watch
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Klein, Daniel B. 1962 births Living people 21st-century American economists American male non-fiction writers American people of Dutch descent George Mason University faculty Libertarian theorists Cato Institute people