The Economics faculty is highly involved in community engagement activities. Here are a few:
Community forums are held numerous times throughout the year where members of the faculty offer an open public lecture on a contemporary economic topic. Previous speakers have included Professors Donald Boudreau, Alex Taborrok, Tyler Cowen, and Garrett Jones, among many others. The community forums have been attended by many hundreds of members of the community. The forums are hosted by Professor Daniel Houser, Economics Department Chair.
The faculty are active in holding public debates on solutions to contemporary economic problems. For example, Professor Bryan Caplan recently went to New York City’s Kaufman Center to debate for Intelligence Squared on the topic of family and household decision making (especially children and education). Also, professor Chris Coyne recently participated in an open debate at Mason on US Interventionist activities around the world.
The Economics Department organizes a semester-long course at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Virtually all of the Economics faculty (and some graduate students) are involved in this volunteer effort to provide economic classes to this distinguished community group.
Given Mason’s location, it is no surprise that the Economics faculty routinely offer testimony to the US Congress. Very recently, Professor Thomas Stratmann was asked by the US House Committee on Financial Services to testify on the data collection activities of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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