Students

Kail Padgitt

Kail is now in his fourth year at the Public Choice Center.  He was previously an undergraduate at James Madison University where he received a bachelors in economics with a minor in mathematics.  Kail works with Dan Houser and David Levy on developing experiments on leadership and cooperation.  He also has done work dealing with the growth of mega-churches in the US with help from Larry Iannaccone.  He is grateful to the Bradley Foundation for their continued funding of his research. 

Jennis Biser

Jennis is a McNair Scholar working toward a joint Ph.D. and J.D. in economics and law.  Originally from Morgantown, WV, she holds a BS in Economics from WVU.  She has recently published two articles on the topic of terrorism with Charles Rowley.  She is now working on her dissertation, applying public choice and law and economic analysis to the study of property rights.  Preliminary research of Supreme Court takings and regulatory takings decisions throughout the last century indicates that the approach taken by the Court has shifted from a Lockean notion of rights to a Hobbesian notion as the composition of the Court has changed in response to political influence.

More Students

Amanda Agan recently finished her undergraduate education at George Mason.  She worked on several projects for Dr. Alexander Tabarrok as well writing her own paper, "Sex Offender Registries: Fear without Function?".  She is looking forward to starting graduate school in the fall.

Eli Dourado is a first-year Ph.D. student.  Working alongside
Professor Thomas Stratmann, he studies empirical Public Choice issues, primarily in the area of campaign finance.  Before coming to George Mason, he worked as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill and as an economist for the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Clark Durant is a Michigander and has been for twenty-six years. His research focus is on constitutional design in ethnically divided societies. Last year he worked on electoral system design and the tyranny of the majority problem.

Michael Makowsky is an Earhart Scholar, Ph.D. candidate, and graduate of the Sante Fe Institute Complex Systems Summer School. He has published and forthcoming articles in The Journal  for the Scientific Study of Religion (with Laurence Iannaccone) and Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. He is currently working on his dissertation on moderate, sectarian and extremist religious groups. Michael is also engaged in joint research on the role of speeding tickets in local public finance and modeling R&D and increasing returns in a competitive marketplace.

Matthew Mitchell is completing his fourth year at the Center and is nearing the end of his doctoral dissertation.  His work focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court and the way Court vacancies influence justices’ voting patterns.

Michael Thomas is a second year graduate student and holds an M.A. from the University of Missouri St Louis and a B.S. in Commerce and Business Administration from the University of Alabama.  He worked in the mortgage industry for two years before returning to Graduate School.  His past research has been on the development of financial institutions in the United States.  He is currently studying the history of ideas and public choice with a concentration on 19th century Continental Europe.

Diana Weinert is a second year graduate student and received her undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Aachen in Germany. Her research interests include law and economics and public choice. Her most recent project is an examination of the social network characteristics of campaign finance contributions to congressional committees and the impact of seniority and reputation on campaign contributions.

Marek Zapletal is a second-year Ph.D. student. His interests are Public Choice, Industrial Organization and Experimental Economics. Marek has worked as a research assistant for Professor Laurence Iannaccone, and has also contributed to building Iannaccone’s Center for the Economic Study of Religion.