The Legacy of Richard E. Wagner

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Published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in the Advanced Studies in Political Economy series.

Richard E. Wagner has spent more than five decades in academia, holding professorship and leadership positions at the University of California Irvine, Tulane University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Auburn University, Florida State University, and George Mason University. He has contributed to the fields of public finance, macroeconomics, and political economy in more than 200 journal articles and 30 books. Economics in Wagner's hands is about exchange and the institutions within which exchange takes place. As a result, much of his scholarship explores how politics, law, and society shape economic relationships.

Generous and wise in his relationships with colleagues and students, Wagner is an exemplar of a lifelong learner. Through his example, Wagner continues to teach us all how to prioritize the sheer joy of learning and how to maintain a sense of urgency in our teaching, and how to avoid getting caught up in negative-sum interactions. In honor of Wagner's 80th birthday and retirement from George Mason University in 2021, a group of his colleagues and students gathered to reflect upon and honor his productive career and to advance research inspired by his work. This Festschrift, edited by Peter J. Boettke and Christopher J. Coyne, includes original essays and reflections that pay tribute to a prolific scholar whose research and teaching have profoundly shaped mainline political economy.

The Legacy of Richard E. Wagner should be of interest to anyone inspired by Wagner's research as well as students, scholars, and policymakers interested in the real-world implications of sound economic theory.

 

Contents

Introduction: Richard E. Wagner-A Scholar and Teacher of the Honorable Tradition of Political Economy
Peter J. Boettke and Christopher J. Coyne

Chapter 1: Thinking Differently about Institutions: The Entangled Political Economy of Richard E. Wagner
Meg Tuszynski

Chapter 2: Untangling Political Economy
Randall G. Holcombe

Chapter 3: The Epistemic Origins of Richard E. Wagner's Realist Defense of Liberalism
Marta Podemska-Mikluch

Chapter 4: Emergence, Process, and the Asymmetries of Regulation: Wagnerian Political Economy
Diana W. Thomas and Michael D. Thomas

Chapter 5: Public Choice, Behavioral Symmetry, and the Ethics of Citizenship
Viktor J. Vanberg

Chapter 6: Constitutional Systems, the Crisis of Governance, and the Entangled Political Economy Perspective
Paul Dragos Aligica

Chapter 7: The Entangled Mind
James Caton

Chapter 8: Wagnerian Relationality
Mikayla Novak

Chapter 9: Network Effects and the Dynamics of Polity and Economy in Society
Santiago J. Gangotena

Chapter 10: Seven Stepping Stones to a Systems Theory of Economics
Abigail N. Devereaux

Chapter 11: Crypto­macroeconomics
Jason Potts, Chris Berg, and Sinclair Davidson

Chapter 12: Finance in a Theory of Money
Cameron Harwick

Chapter 13: Expressive Entrepreneurship
Adam Martin and Vincent Miozzi