The creation of the James M. Buchanan Center for the Study of Political Economy is underway, with a $10 million gift from the Charles G. Koch Foundation.

Buchanan was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science in 1986 for his theory that applies economic analysis to political decision making. He brought his Center for Study of Public Choice to Mason in 1983 from Virginia Tech, where it had been based for 14 years.

The new center incorporates the Center for Study of Public Choice and the Center for Market Processes, and will continue its affiliation with the Institute for Humane Studies.

The center will collaborate with the Department of Economics and the School of Law. Robert Tollison, Duncan Black Professor of Economics and general director of the Center for Study of Public Choice, serves as the center's founding director.

The grant, distributed over five years, will support faculty and advanced graduate student scholarship and publications, policy analysis and consultation, postdoctoral fellows and visiting faculty, workshops, and symposia on related topics for the broader community.

Says George Mason president Alan G. Merten, "Charles Koch is a long-time supporter of the university, and we are pleased that he has expressed such confidence in our work. We believe this support will help us become a national center of excellence of study of the relationship between the polity and the economy. It will enhance our capacity for scholarly inquiry and our contributions to public discourse on these important matters."

Richard Fink, president of the Charles G. Koch Foundation and member of the university's Board of Visitors, added, "The Charles Koch Foundation is always searching to support innovative programs that help address the urgent social and economic problems facing society. Few scholars and institutions have the courage and the capability to make a difference," he continued. "Professors Buchanan and Robert Tollison, and the James Buchanan Center at George Mason University meet both these criteria."

James Buchanan

Once that group was soundly established, he returned to George Mason at the urging of then-president George Johnson, and senior vice president Wade Gilley, to head a preliminary capital campaign feasibility study as executive vice president for University Advancement and Planning.

He has since served as vice president for government and public affairs, senior vice president, and executive vice president and member of the board of directors of Koch Industries. Fink serves on the board of trustees of the Center for Study of Public Choice and the Center for Market Processes, and is a member of the board of the Progressive Policy Institute, associated with the Democratic Leadership Council. He has been a member of the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board and a member of the President's Commission on Privatization.

Fink is the editor of Supply Side Economics: A Critical Appraisal (University Publications of America, 1982), and with Jack High, of A Nation in Debt: Economists Debate the Federal Budget Deficit (University Publications of America, 1987).