Past Students

2007 Center Doctorates

Colleen Berndt joined center faculty and staff to honor Betty Tillman after defending her dissertation, "The Economics of Religion: An Overview of the Literature and Two Extensions" under adviser Laurence Iannaccone.

Bridget Butkevich proudly holds her finished dissertation "Constrained Coordination: Experimental and Russian Evidence ," which she completed under adviser David Levy.

Clark Durant was all smiles at Betty Tillman’s party after successfully defending “To Rule and Be Ruled In Turns: How To Grow a Constitution From an Electoral Seed” under adviser Tyler Cowen.

Michael Makowsky defended his dissertation "The Dynamics of Religious Groups, Divides, and Extremism" under adviser Laurence Iannaccone. He currently teaches at Towson University. 

Bradley Foundation Recipients:

Bradley Foundation Fellowships were awarded to fulltime doctoral candidates in economics who demonstrated their interest in public choice, political economy, or constitutional economics. These awards were made possible by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, an organization that believes responsible self-government depends on enlightened citizens and informed public opinion, and supports scholarly studies and academic achievement toward that end.

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.

2005 - 2006 Bradley Graduate Fellows

Matt Mitchell

Matt is grateful for another year of support from the Bradley Foundation. His research interests vary from history of thought to the political economy of the Supreme Court.  Matthew has also written a number of popular pieces for public policy think tanks in Arizona, New Mexico and Maryland.  Matthew is currently a research economist at the Rio Grande Foundation, the public policy think tank based in New Mexico.

Kail Padgitt

Kail is in his third year as a graduate student at the Public Choice Center.  He is concentrating in the areas of industrial organization and public finance.  In the fall semester, he assisted in experiments run by Daniel Houser, David Levy and Sandra Peart.  He is grateful for the financial support of the Bradley Foundation.

Colleen Berndt

Colleen is a California native  with over 13 years of management experience in the airline and software industries. Her research interests include public choice economics, public finance and international development. Her most recent project is an exam-ination of the political role of religious institutions in ancient Greece. Colleen is working on her dis-sertation which examines Random Leadership.

Matt Mitchell

Matt is currently developing a model which explores the relationship between fiscal federalism and constitutional gen-erality. In addition to his academic work, Matthew has written a number of popular pieces for public policy think tanks in Arizona, New Mexico and Maryland. Matthew is currently research economist at the New Mexico-based Rio Grande Foundation.

2003 - 2004 Bradley Graduate Fellows

Colleen Berndt

Colleen is a California native with over 13 years of management experience in the airline and software industries. She hopes to exploit her background in finance and labor relations, examining the relationship between institutions, government regulations and businesses. She is a research assistant for Mark Crain.

Bridget Butkevich

Bridget’s dissertation focuses on the allocation of decision rights and how the informal norms impact the implementation of formal rules. She examines these questions through the lenses of public choice theory, experimental economics, and the economic history of Russia's transition. Bridget believes the history of property rights may provide insight into how they are protected in the future.

Matt Dobra

Matt has been a graduate student at the Center for Study of Public Choice for the past four years. He is writing his dissertation under Mark Crain, and hopes to finish in May 2004. His dissertation analyzes the relationship between the governance structures of U.S. public pension plans at the state and local level and their investment performance.