Mercatus
Education in Arlington

Mercatus Senior Research Fellow Adam Thierer, along with Cato Senior Fellow Dan Mitchell, and Cato Manager of Government Affairs Laura Odato, discuss Internet tax policy and the legal and economic issues raised by current legislation.
Mercatus conduct, work with to apply ideas to problems in the world, and make research findings available to the and public policy makers to connect academic learning with real world practice.
Mercatus does not receive financial support from George Mason University or any federal, state, or local government.
Mercatus brings good ideas from academics around the world to people in government.

As a university-based research center, the Mercatus Center trains students, conducts research of consequence, and persuasively communicates economic ideas to solve society’s most pressing problems and advance knowledge about how markets work to improve people’s lives. Our mission is to generate knowledge and understanding of the institutions that affect the freedom to prosper and to find sustainable solutions that overcome the barriers preventing individuals from living free, prosperous, and peaceful lives. The Mercatus Center is led by a faculty director who is appointed by the provost of George Mason University. The Mercatus Center relies on the generosity of supporters who value economic research that speaks to real-world problems. Researchers select their own projects and are committed to the highest standards of academic quality and credibility for their research procedures and products. We ensure our standards through peer review, rigorous internal review, and a transparent process for selecting and undertaking research projects. The F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (Hayek Program) is devoted to the promotion of teaching and research on the institutional arrangements that are suitable for the support of free and prosperous societies. Under the direction of Professors Peter Boettke and Christopher Coyne, the Hayek Program supports scholars who work at the intersection of the Austrian, Virginia, and Bloomington schools of political economy and whose scholarship pays particular attention to the connections and relationships between economics and such other branches of the humane studies as law, politics, philosophy, and history. Hayek Program scholars are committed to teaching and mentoring students, pursuing research of consequence, and being active participants in the scientific community through leadership positions at George Mason University and with professional associations, as well as through editorial responsibilities with academic journals and publishers. The one defining characteristic of our program is the open invitation to inquiry that we offer to all who are serious about using economics to study human beings in all walks of life. Marginal Revolution University is a new approach to online education. In this new book, Matthew D. Mitchell and Peter J. Boettke summarize the ideas of mainline economics and attempt to answer this question: Why are some societies fabulously wealthy while others are miserably poor? Rulers, religion, and riches: Why the West got rich and the Middle East did not. The first serious optimist: A. C. Pigou and the birth of welfare economics.