The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is pleased to announce Dr. Paul Dragos Aligica’s election to the Academia Europaea. Dr. Aligica will hold a double affiliation with the “Governance and Institutions” section and the “Social Change and Social Thought” section of the organization.
“Paul has made significant contributions to the field of political economy. Working with Paul for the past 15 years has given me a firsthand view of the advances his insights and research have made regarding the nature of polycentricity, the limits of public entrepreneurship, and the possibility of self-governance,” said Dr. Virgil Storr, Vice President, Academic and Student Programs at Mercatus. “I congratulate Paul on his well-deserved recognition by the Academia Europaea.”
The Academia Europaea was founded in 1988 and is a European, non-governmental association that functions as an Academy. It encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry covering the humanities, social and natural sciences. The Academia encourages the highest standards in European scholarship, research and education, as well as advises national governments and international organizations concerning matters affecting science, scholarship and academic life in Europe. Membership is by invitation and election is confirmed by the Council of the Academia.
“This achievement is also a recognition of the unique academic environment offered by the Mercatus Center and George Mason University, places of enormous intellectual emulation, collegiality, and, very important these days, a place of academic freedom for which I will be always deeply appreciative and grateful,” said Dr. Aligica.
Dr. Aligica is a Senior Research Fellow in the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and KPMG Professor of Governance at the University of Bucharest. Aligica received a doctorate in Economics from the University of Bucharest and a PhD in political science from Indiana University Bloomington, where he was a student of Vincent Ostrom and Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Economics. He has been at the Mercatus Center for 20 years, researching institutional theory, political economy and social and political philosophy, and teaching graduate students in George Mason’s economics department. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Aligica has consulted for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Bank (WB), various EU programs and institutions, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
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