Chris Coyne is Coming to GMU!

|Peter Boettke|

I was thinking of something catchy to say, but my sheer joy with the facts of the situation required instead just a straightforward statement --- Chris Coyne has accepted our offer to join the economics faculty here at GMU starting next fall.  He will be the "Baldy" Harper Professor in Political Economy at GMU.

Chris has built an outstanding track record of research and teaching over the last 5 years at Hampden Sydney College and then West Virginia University.  Chris's contribution is not limited to outstanding teaching and internationally recognized quality research, but simply put, in my opinion Chris is the best program builder in economics and political economy in his generation.  His background in business taught him both professionalism and attention to detail that are in stark contrast to most academics.  Chris gave up a lucrative career on Wall Street to pursue a career in ideas, and the characteristics that made him a fast riser in the field of finance also make him an amazingly proficient editor (ask anyone about the job he does for the RAE) and detail oriented manager of research and educational programs.

Research wise Chris not only contributes immeasurably to our efforts in Austrian or market process theory, and political economy, but adds considerably to our team focus in development and comparative institutional analysis.  Chris's next book (under contract with Stanford) will critically address humanitarian aid efforts by various state's and international agencies.

I often characterize economics in one of two ways to whoever cares to listen. First, economics IS a deadly serious discipline that is concerned with deadly serious topics.  Chris Coyne's After War is the example I use to illustrate this idea of economics.  Coyne tackles the most important topic of our day (as Samuel Britain pointed out in his review of Coyne in the Financial Times, the cost of the war effort in the Middle East and the aftermath of the war are far greater than the financial crisis we are currently facing).  It is not just financial expense of war and after war reconstruction that Coyne addresses, but the senseless loss of human lives on both sides.  Using the tools of economics, Coyne demonstrates the folly of man in believing that individual freedom, democratic politics, and free market economy can be established at the point of a gun.  Economics provides the tools of thought for that assessment, and in so doing, reveals to all the power of this tool of thought to address the most important topics of our day with sober analysis.  Coyne is a master of the praxeological analysis of war and after war reconstruction.

The other way to view economics is as a tool for thinking that explains everything around us -- from sexual relations to the roster of your favorite baseball team.  The economic way of thinking is the most illuminating tool of thought that social scientists have at their disposal.  It is amazingly fun to work with once you "get it" and the way we teach economics should be an act of intellectual seduction to get students and others to see the power of the economic way of thinking to address man in all walks of life.  Pete Leeson's work on pirates, ordeals, lawlessness, even UFO's and Sasquatch represents the creative potential of the economic way of thinking to make even the most unusual and obscure topic come into sharp relief.  As Steve Levitt noted in his NYT column, Pete is perhaps the most creative economist around when it comes to these sort of exercises.  Leeson is also a gifted writer.

GMU now has both on our faculty.  What a great opportunity for our students to be exposed to these two in tandem.

I realize I am bragging because both Coyne and Leeson are former students as well as close colleagues of mine, but it is what it is.  As Walter Williams often has said, a dog that doesn't wag its own tail is a pretty sad dog. Both Coyne and Leeson think economics, do economics, teach economics, and write economics as it should be done.  Deadly serious and wildly entertaining is what economics is and can be in the hands of its best practitioners.*  It is what we hope to be as economic researchers and educators.  And in our teaching capacity, we intellectually seduce our students with one or the other, and sometimes both.  This pair (and I would argue several other of my former students who have also amassed some great accomplishments as researchers and teachers in their relatively young careers) "get it" and are committed to striving for excellence in research and teaching along these lines.  As economists we are asked to communicate in spoken and written word to our peers, our students, policy makers, and the interested layman.  Very few economists are effective at all four levels.  But those who are lasting in our intellectual imagination tend to be.

Anyway, please join me in congratulating GMU and specifically the department of economics for having the vision and good fortune to be able to get Chris to join our faculty.  We have just gotten an outstanding teacher, a first-rate and internationally recognized scholar, and an absolutely wonderful person to join our ranks.

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*Andrei Shleifer once rhetorically asked me why so many of our fellow economists believed that "a PhD was a right to be boring." I agree with him that a PhD is not a license to be boring, and that economics done right never is.  And it never is in the work of Coyne or Leeson.

Comments

[Steve Horwitz]

Terrific news for Chris and for the GMU department and the Austrian/market process program. Congrats all around.

[Mario Rizzo]

Good news! Congratulations to Chris and GMU.

[Roger Koppl]

Congratulations, Chris! This is good for GMU and good for economics.

[Alexandre Padilla]

The fact that Chris Coyne and Peter Leeson have joined the GMU faculty not only is great but it also shows that GMU is ahead of my Ph.D programs in terms of teaching their graduates how to be a good economist, do interesting research, and more importantly (according to academic standards) to publish. Congratulations to Chris! My former student who is at GMU and hopefully the future ones are extremely thrilled by this news!

[TGGP]

I'd like to ask Chris how his book will differ from William Easterly's work.

[Anne Leeson]

Congratulations, Chris!

[Will Luther]

Welcome back, Chris!

[Peter Lewin]

FANTASTIC!! Wow! Boettke works his magic again.

Mazeltov Chris!

[Current]

Congratulations

[Ben Powell]

Congrats to Chris, and to Pete and Pete. I remember you all talking nearly a decade ago how you would all love to work at GMU together. Congrats on making it happen.

[Michael Wiebe]

Great news!

[Barkley Rosser]

Congratulations to Chris and all others involved.

[topills.com review]

how his book will differ from William Easterly's work ??