Christopher Coyne (professor)
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Christopher J. Coyne (born 1977) is the F.A. Harper Professor of Economics at
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 the associate director of th
F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
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 ...
.


Education

After graduating in 1999 with a B.S. from
Manhattan College Manhattan College is a private, Catholic, liberal arts university in the Bronx, New York City. Originally established in 1853 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers) as an academy for day students, it was la ...
, Coyne received his M.A. (2003) and Ph.D. (2005) in economics from
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 ...
, where he studied with
Peter Boettke Peter Joseph Boettke (; born January 3, 1960) is an American economist of the Austrian School. He is currently a professor of economics and philosophy at George Mason University; the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism, vice president for ...
and
Tyler Cowen Tyler Cowen (; born January 21, 1962) is an American economist, columnist and blogger. He is a professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department. He hosts the economics blog ''Marginal R ...
.


Career in economics

After graduating from
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 ...
in 2005, Coyne accepted a position as assistant professor of economics at
Hampden-Sydney College Hampden Sydney is a census-designated place (CDP) in Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,450 at the 2010 census. Hampden Sydney is the home of Hampden–Sydney College, a private all-male college that is the tenth- ...
. In 2007, he left Hampden-Sydney to accept a position as assistant professor of economics at
West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...
. He joined the department of economics at George Mason University in 2010. Besides his position at George Mason University, Coyne is the co-editor of ''The Review of Austrian Economics'', the co-editor of ''The Independent Review'', and the book review editor of ''Public Choice''. He is also a member of the editorial board of the '' Journal of Private Enterprise'', the '' Journal of Entrepreneurship & Public Policy'', and '' Studies in Emergent Orders''. He is also a research fellow at
The Independent Institute The Independent Institute is an American libertarian think tank based in Oakland, California. Founded in 1986 by David J. Theroux, the institute focuses on political, social, economic, legal, environmental, and foreign policy issues. It has more ...
, a member of the Board of Scholars for the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, and a member of the advisory board of The Cobden Centre. The Fund for the Study of Spontaneous Orders, which is administered by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, awarded Coyne its Hayek Prize in 2007 for:
...a series of related articles on the influence of institutional arrangements on entrepreneurship and international development; and on weak and failed states and the problem of nation building. In these articles Coyne applies an Austrian economics perspective to argue that just as successful economies and polities can not be built from whole cloth according to rational constructivist principles, there are limits to what even well-intentioned governments can do to build free markets and free political orders elsewhere
In 2008, he was named the Hayek Fellow at the
London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...
. In 2010, he was a visiting scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at
Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...
.


Research

Coyne has numerous publications including academic journal articles, book chapters, policy papers, and book reviews. His primary areas of research include
Austrian economics 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 school ...
, economic development, and political economy. His first book, ''After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy'', was published by
Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It was among the presses officially ...
in November 2007 (; paperback ). ''After War'' employs the tools of economics to analyze the ability of the U.S. to export
democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
abroad. The central argument is that continued efforts to export democracy through
military occupation Military occupation, also known as belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is the effective military control by a ruling power over a territory that is outside of that power's sovereign territory.Eyāl Benveniśtî. The international law ...
and reconstruction are more likely to fail than to succeed because of an array of constraints facing occupiers and policymakers. In the book, Coyne contends that failure is due to the inability of foreign governments to centrally plan the complex array of institutions which underpin liberal democracy. Coyne provides a new vision of
U.S. foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...
including principled
nonintervention Non-interventionism or non-intervention is a political philosophy or national foreign policy doctrine that opposes interference in the domestic politics and affairs of other countries but, in contrast to isolationism, is not necessarily opposed t ...
and a commitment to
free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...
in goods, ideas and cultural products. He presented his book 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 ...
in November 2007. In his review of ''After War'' in the ''Financial Times'', Samuel Brittan concluded by noting that,
Prof Coyne is obviously a dove rather than a hawk. But he accepts the case for occasional intervention for humanitarian reasons or to protect US citizens. His main suggestions are to avoid nation-building types of intervention and adopt free trade, if necessary unilaterally by the US. It is perhaps ''déformation professionelle'' for economists to overrate the spillover benefits of the latter. But peace and welfare may depend on how far the next US president accepts the main lines of his analysis – a subject even more important than the current credit crunch.Brittan, Samuel. "Make the world safe from crusaders," ''Financial Times'', September 26, 2008, p. 1

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In, ''Media, Development, and Institutional Change'', (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009, ) Coyne and
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 ...
investigate mass media's ability to affect institutional change and economic development. They analyze media's role in enabling and inhibiting political-economic reforms that promote development. The book explores how media can constrain government, how governments manipulate media to entrench their power, and how private and public media ownership affects a country's ability to prosper. Coyne and Leeson identify specific media-related policies that governments of underdeveloped countries should adopt if they want to grow. They also illustrate why media freedom is a critical ingredient in the recipe of economic development and why even the best-intentioned state involvement in media is more likely to slow prosperity than to enhance it. Coyne is the co-editor, with Rachel Mathers, of ''The Handbook on the Political Economy of War'' (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010). His third authored book, ''Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails'', (Stanford University Press, 2013, ) builds on ''After War'', which excluded broader notions of state-led humanitarianism (short and long-term aid and assistance, peacekeeping and security) to assist and protect those in need. ''Doing Bad by Doing Good'' argues that epistemic constraints and perverse political incentives contribute to the ongoing failure of state-led efforts to alleviate suffering. The dilemma facing proponents of state-led humanitarian action is that the incentives inherent in political institutions encourage the expansion of humanitarian action beyond what can be realistically accomplished. The result is overly ambitious efforts which are likely to fail and impose significant costs on innocent people. In place of the dominant approach to state-led humanitarian action, Coyne argues for the importance of establishing an environment of economic freedom. In increasing the range of alternative choices open to people around the world, such an environment empowers individuals to improve their own lives, and the lives of others, through a process of experimentation and discovery. His fourth book, ''Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of U.S. Militarism'' (Stanford University Press, 2018, ), co-authored with Abigail R. Hall, examines the domestic consequences of foreign interventions. Specifically, the book tracks the consequences of unchecked government behavior overseas that would not be permissible within national borders. Emboldened by the relative weakness of governance abroad, the U.S. government is able to experiment with a broader range of social controls. Under certain conditions, these policies, tactics, and technologies are then re-imported to America, changing the national landscape and increasing the extent to which we live in a police state. Coyne and Hall call the pattern of domestic adoption of tactics applied abroad, due to limited constraints, "the boomerang effect." They consider a variety of rich cases that include the rise of state surveillance, the militarization of domestic law enforcement, the expanding use of drones, and torture in U.S. prisons. In his fifth book, ''Manufacturing Militarism: U.S. Government Propaganda in the War on Terror'', (Stanford University Press, 2021, ) also co-authored with Abigail R. Hall, they explain how propaganda operates in democratic politics and why it matters for citizens of democratic countries. They specifically focus on government-produced propaganda targeting the domestic populace within the United States in the post-9/11 period. They show that the U.S. government has purposefully provided partial or misleading information about the actual threats to the security of U.S. persons while contributing to a broader culture of militarism. Towards the end of the book, they offer potential institutional reforms that would limit the extent to which propaganda can distort the ability of the citizenry to form informed opinions.


References


External links


Coyne's personal webpage

After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy

Interview with National Review's "Between the Covers" on ''After War''

Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails
*
Coyne's Coordination Problem blog

Coyne's bio
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 ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coyne, Christopher 1977 births Living people 21st-century American economists American libertarians Austrian School economists Economics educators George Mason University alumni Libertarian economists Manhattan College alumni Mercatus Center Non-interventionism West Virginia University faculty