Eileen Norcross
- Senior Research Fellow, Vice President of Policy Research
Eileen Norcross is the Vice President of Policy Research and a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Her research focuses on questions of public finance, how economic institutions support or hamper economic resiliency and civil society, the relationship between culture and institutions, and polycentricity in governance. She specializes in fiscal federalism and institutions, state and local government finance, public governance, and economic development.
Her work has been cited in various media outlets, and her op-eds have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Christian Science Monitor, US News & World Report, and Forbes.
Norcross has testified before Congress on the Community Development Block Grant program, state and local pension underfunding, municipal bankruptcy, and the use of technology to monitor stimulus funding. She has also testified on fiscal policies in Pennsylvania, Florida, California, New Hampshire, and Montana. She served as a public member on the Virginia Commission on Employee Retirement Security and Pension Reform from 2016 to 2017. Her academic publications include articles in the Maryland Journal, The Journal of Law, Economics and Policy, the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, and a book chapter in The Political Economy of Hurricane Katrina and Community Rebound, edited by Emily Chamlee-Wright and Virgil Henry Storr.
She received both her MA in economics and her BA in economics and American history from Rutgers University.
Publications & Appearances
- | Government Spending Government Spending
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Budget Boost Over a Fiscal Cliff: States Surf a Federal Windfall | Washington Examiner
- | Books Books
The Political Economy of Public Pensions

- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
The China Challenge: Rebuilding Trust in the Global Trading System
- | Government Spending Government Spending
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Congress Bails Out Some Pension Plans, but Does Nothing to Fix the Problem
Years of balance sheet gimmicks mean trillions in unfunded liabilities. Read more at Discourse.
- | Government Spending Government Spending
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
COVID Stimulus Won’t Cure the Pension Pandemic
Public sector pensions should've been prepared to weather the pandemic recession without outside help. Read more at the Finger...
- | Government Spending Government Spending
- | Public Interest Comments Public Interest Comments
Project No. 3-20 Proposed Changes May Obscure Government Fiscal Health
- | Regulation Regulation
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Executive Orders Aren’t Always the Best Tool
Executive orders can achieve some policy goals, but they circumvent the deliberative process and are not always effective. Read...
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Discourse Magazine Podcast Discourse Magazine Podcast
Classical Liberalism and the Common Good
Eileen Norcross and Alex Salter discuss individualism, subsidiarity and the history of liberal institutions. Read the transcript...
- | F.A. Hayek Program F.A. Hayek Program
- | Journal Articles Journal Articles
Catholic Social Thought and New Institutional Economics
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Mercatus Scholars’ Most Influential Books: Eileen Norcross
In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, we’ve asked some of our scholars to...