Mercatus Center
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The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is a market-oriented research, education, and outreach think tank that works with policy experts, lobbyists, and government officials to connect academic learning and real world practice.
The Mercatus Center was founded by Rich Fink, former president of the Koch Foundations, which funds a network of market-oriented think tanks and advocacy groups. Originally Center for Market Processes, it moved from Rutgers University to George Mason in the early 1980s before assuming its current name in 1999. The Mercatus Center is entirely funded through voluntary donations, including individual donors and foundations. Prominent among the latter are the Koch Foundations, founded by members of the Koch family, who own Koch Industries.[1]
Mercatus' stated mission is to integrate theory and practice to produce solutions that sustainably advance a free, prosperous, and civil society. Mercatus has several research and outreach programs - Capitol Hill Campus, the Government Accountability and Oversight Project, the Regulatory Studies Program, and the Global Prosperity Initiative - which aims to synthesize and communicate new academic research and economic reasoning about policy to legislators, legislative assistants, and others involved in the legislative process.
The Mercatus Center is located on George Mason University's Arlington Campus, along with the George Mason University School of Law, the Law and Economics Center, and its sister organization, the Institute for Humane Studies. Its general director and board chairman is George Mason economics professor Tyler Cowen. Other Board members include Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith, former Attorney General Edwin Meese, businessman Charles G. Koch, and Rich Fink.
In 2001, the Office of Management and Budget asked for public input on which regulations should be revised or killed. Mercatus submitted 44 of the 71 proposals the OMB received. The recommendations from Mercatus critiqued regulations such as a proposed Interior Department rule prohibiting snowmobiles in Rocky Mountain National Park, a Transportation Department rule limiting truckers' hours behind the wheel, and an EPA rule limiting the amount of arsenic in drinking water. [2] More recently, Mercatus has offered a series of critiques of the government's Hurricane Katrina disaster relief and a framework for evaluating counter-terrorism measures. Mercatus organizes an active African research activity, EnterpriseAfrica!, in cooperation with the Institute of Economic Affairs of the United Kingdom, the Free Market Foundation of South Africa, and the John Templeton Foundation.
