New Economists Represent Latest Outstanding Scholars to Join Faculty

By Daniel Walsch

In 1983, when James Buchanan, a distinguished professor of economics at Virginia Tech, showed interest in relocating his Center for the Study of Public Choice, George Mason offered a new "home" to him, his center, and any of its faculty.

Buchanan accepted the offer and came to George Mason along with several of his fellow center colleagues.

Fast forward to 2001.

When it is learned that a group of seven renowned economists known for their cutting-edge work on experimental economics at the University of Arizona is open to moving to another institution of higher learning, history repeats itself.

Led by Vernon Smith, this group makes up the Economic Science Laboratory, which devotes much of its energy toward scientific testing of economic theories in a laboratory setting. Other team members are Daniel Houser, Kevin McCabe, Mark Olson, David Porter, Stephen Rassenti, and Bart Wilson.

George Mason approached Smith and the others about the possibility of relocating to Northern Virginia. Following discussions with President Alan Merten, Provost Peter Stearns, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Daniele Struppa, Economics professors Tyler Cowen and Walter Williams, and others, Smith and his colleagues agreed to join the university.

In a June article, Smith told the Washington Post: "We were approached by four universities, but we only pursued two of them, and George Mason was a clear best choice for us. It's a young university that has a real vision. Old universities get so encumbered by their past histories."

The recruitment of Buchanan, and most recently, Smith and his colleagues are two examples of how a university can take advantage of opportunities to hire outstanding scholars as opposed to following a more traditional, need-driven path, Stearns says.

"The goal of any college or university is to acquire and maintain the best and most academically sound faculty it can afford; scholars with the very best credentials who possess a solid track record of research and scholarship coupled with a belief in and commitment to teaching," says Stearns. "George Mason is no exception."

"Our institution was not looking for these individuals. Yet the opportunity presented itself, and we felt they could contribute much to helping us achieve the level of excellence among our faculty to which we are striving," he adds.   

Smith and his colleagues, as did Buchanan before them, share a strong commitment to both research and teaching undergraduate and graduate-level students, Stearns says. "From our perspective, this is one major component that made this group so attractive to us. Their view of the role that a faculty member should play is compatible with our own."

The group will be part of the College of Arts and Sciences and will work closely with the university's School of Law and School of Management. According to Cowen, executive director of George Mason's Mercatus Center and associate professor of economics, "Experimental economics has leaped to the frontier of modern economic science and is commonly considered the most important recent development in the profession. This group has the greatest concentration of expertise in the field. They combine first-class research with an emphasis on student involvement and implementation of their ideas in the real world."