Mark Thornton

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Mark Thornton

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Mark Thornton is an American economist who adheres to the principles of the Austrian school.

Thornton received his B.S. from St. Bonaventure University (1982), and his Ph.D. from Auburn University (1989). Thornton has been described by the Advocates for Self-Government as "one of America's experts on the economics of illegal drugs." [1] Thornton has written extensively on that topic, as well as on the economics of the American Civil War, and public finance.

His current research interests include public finance, law and regulation, the growth of government, slavery and the Civil War, the history of economic thought, monetary economics, Austrian school of economics, and current topics in public policy. Thornton's first book, The Economics of Prohibition was praised by Murray Rothbard, who declared:

Thornton's book... arrives to fill an enormous gap, and it does so splendidly.... The drug prohibition question is... the hottest political topic today, and for the foreseeable future.... This is an excellent work making an important contribution to scholarship as well as to the public policy debate.

Thornton has also been active in the political arena, making his first bid for office in 1984, when he ran for the U.S. Congress. He became the first Libertarian Party office-holder in Alabama when he was elected Constable in 1988. In addition to further political candidacies, Thornton also served in various capacities with the Libertarian Party of Alabama. In 1996 he became an economic advisor to the Alabama Governor of the time, Fob James.

Mark Thornton giving an introduction to libertarianism at Auburn University in 2006.

Thornton taught economics at Auburn University for a number of years, additionally serving as founding faculty advisor for the Auburn University Libertarians. He also served on the faculty of Columbus State University, and is now a senior fellow and resident faculty member at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is currently the Book Review Editor for the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.

[edit] Books

The Economics of Prohibition. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 1991. (ISBN 0-87480-379-9)
Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War (with Robert B. Ekelund, Jr). Delaware: Scholarly Resource Books, 2004. (ISBN 0-8420-2961-3)
The Quotable Mises (editor). Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2005. (ISBN 0-945466-45-5)