The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is pleased to announce that Eric Leeper will join the Center as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar for the 2023-24 academic year. Leeper joins Mercatus scholars Veronique de Rugy, the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy, Keith Hall, former director of the CBO, and David Beckworth, host of Macro Musings, in studying fiscal and monetary policy. Leeper’s main research focus will be on fiscal policy’s interdependence with monetary policy.
“I look forward to learning from my new Mercatus colleagues about the practical and political economy dimensions of macroeconomic policies,” said Leeper. “We share the common goal of synthesizing a variety of perspectives to arrive at better understandings of how fiscal, monetary, and financial policies interact to affect economic outcomes and social well-being. These understandings cannot come soon enough: pressures on all three policies are mounting and policy makers need to comprehend their consequences for economic growth and inflation.”
Leeper is the Paul Goodloe McIntire Professor in Economics at the University of Virginia. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, director of the Virginia Center for Economic Policy at the University of Virginia, and a member of the advisory council of the Center for Quantitative Economic Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Prior to joining the UVA faculty in 2018, he was a professor at Indiana University for 23 years. Leeper received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in economics from George Mason University.
“After following Eric’s work for many years, I am thrilled to welcome him to Mercatus,” said de Rugy. “His expertise adds a new and important dimension to the work Mercatus produces on fiscal and monetary policy.”
Previously, Leeper published a policy brief, Fiscal Dominance: How Worried Should We Be?, with Mercatus and appeared as a guest on Macro Musings. For additional information about Leeper’s work or to request an interview, please contact Matthew Boyer, Director of Media Relations, at [email protected].