John V.C. Nye

John Nye holds the Frederic Bastiat Chair in Political Economy at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and is Professor of Economics. His primary research interests include European economic history, development, and new institutional economics.

Dr. Nye was a founding member of the International Society for the New Institutional Economics and has been on the editorial board of the Journal of Economic History. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Economic History of Developing Regions and the Philippine Economic Review. In 1997, he was a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He serves as International Academic Advisor for the Center for Institutional Studies at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He is also a research advisor to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Philippine Central Bank).

His book, War, Wine, and Taxes: The Political Economy of Anglo-French Trade 1689-1900 was published in 2007 by Princeton University Press. With John Drobak, he coedited Frontiers in the New Institutional Economics, Academic Press. Institutions, Innovation, and Industrialization, jointly edited with Avner Greif and Lynne Kiesling was published by Princeton University Press , 2015.

His current projects include work on the political economy of development, the role of biology and prenatal testosterone on personality, attitudes, and life outcomes, long term social mobility in Russian history, and the role of education in promoting pro-market values internationally.

Dr. Nye received his B.S. from the California Institute of Technology in Physics, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University.

"2D:4D and individual satisfaction: Evidence from the Russian social survey" with Maksym Bryukhanov and Sergiy Polyachenko (2019). Personality and Individual Differences.
"Positional goods and the challenge of Chinese regional inequality" (2018). Economic and Political Studies.
"2D:4D and lifetime educational outcomes: Evidence from the Russian RMLS survey" with Maksym Bryukhanov and Sergiy Polyachenko (2017). Personality and Individual Differences.
"Corrigendum to "2D:4D and lifetime educational outcomes: Evidence from the Russian RLMS survey" with Maxym Bruhanov and Sergiy Polyachenko (2017). Personality and Individual Differences.
"Descriptive statistics and regressions of 2D:4D and educational attainment based on RLMS data" with Maksym Bryukhanov and Sergiy Polyachenko (2017). Data in Brief. Vol. Volume 12. P. 552-583.
"The Effects of Prenatal Testosterone on Adult Wages: Evidence from Russian RLMS Data and Measured 2D:4D Digit Ratios" with Maria Yudkevich, Ekaterina Orel and Ekaterina Kochergina (2017). Economics and Human Biology. Vol. 24. P. 43-60.
"What do we really know about durable goods monopolies? The Coase conjecture in economics and its relevance for the safety razor industry" (2016) in The Elgar Companion to Ronald H. Coase, edited by Claude Menard and Elodie Bertrand, Elgar.
"Does Political Competition Matter for Public Goods Provision?: Evidence from Russian Regions," with Olga Vasilyeva (2015). Journal of ComparativPersonality and Individual Differencese Economics.
"Testing for Strategic Manipulation of Economic and Financial Data," with Charles Moul (2015). Steven Miller, ed. Benford's Law: Theory and Applications, chapter 13. Princeton University Press.
"The Influence of Prenatal Hormones on Occupational Choice: 2D:4D Evidence from Moscow," with Ekaterina Orel (2015). Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 78, May, pp. 39-42.
"Establishing a New Order: The Growth of the State and the Decline of Witch Trials in France," with Noel Johnson and Mark Koyama in Greif, Kiesling, and Nye, eds. (2015) Institutions, Innovation and Industrialization, Princeton University Press.
"Do Black Mayors Improve Black Relative to White Outcomes?: Evidence from Large U.S. Cities" with Ilia Rainer and Thomas Stratmann. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization (2014); doi: 10.1093/jleo/ewu008.
"From Internal Taxes to National Regulation: Evidence from a French Wine Tax Reform at the end of the Twentieth Century" with Raphael Franck and Noel Johnson. Explorations in Economic History. (2014) Vol. 51, January, 77-93.
"Institutions and Income Inequality in Asia: Disentangling Policy and Political Structure," in Kanbur, R. et al. eds. (2014), Inequality in Asia and the Pacific, Asian Development Bank, Routledge.
"The Causal Effect of Market Priming on Trust: An Experimental Investigation using Randomized Control" with Omar Al-Ubaydli, Dan Houser, Maria Paganelli, and Sophie Pan. PLoS One, 8(3): e55968. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055968
"2D:4D Asymmetry and Gender Differences in Academic Performance: Evidence from Moscow and Manila" with Gregory Androuschak, Desirée Desierto, Garett Jones, and Maria Yudkevich. 2012 PLoS One 7(10): e46319. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046319
"Taking Institutions Seriously: the Political Economy of Development in the Philippines," Asian Development Review, 28 (1) 1-21, 2011.
"The Evolution of Institutions: The Medium, the Long, and the Ultra-Long Run" with Desirée Desierto, 2011, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 167(4), 613-629.
"Why Do Weak States Prefer Prohibition to Taxation?" with Desirée Desierto, in Caballero and Schofield eds. The Political Economy of Institutions. 2011.
"Money isn't everything: Linking college choice to winning prizes and professorships" with Charles C. Moul, Applied Economics Letters, 18 (11): 1091-8.
"Brewing Nation: Wine, War, Taxes and the Growth of the British Beer Industry in the 18th and 19th Centuries," in Johann Swinnen, ed. The Economics of Beer, 62-78, Oxford University Press, 2011.
"The Myth of Free Trade Britain and Fortress France: Tariffs and Trade in the 19th Century." Journal of Economic History, 51, no.1, March, pp. 23-46, 1991. Runner-up for the Cole Prize for outstanding essay in the JEH. Reprinted in Dormois and Lains, Classical Trade Protectionism 1815-1914 (lead article). Reprinted in François Crouzet, ed. The Economic Development of France Since 1870 (Edward Elgar, 1993). Reprinted in C. Knick Harley, ed. The Integration of the World Economy 1850-1914, vol. II (Edward Elgar, 1996).

"Make School Hard Again" (2019). Reason magazine.
"John Nye on Revisionist Economic History and Having Too Many Hobbies" Converstions with Tyler Ep. 54 (2018). Medium.
"Douglass North: Restless Innovator" (2016). The Independent Review.
"Real Inequality: Why Things Are Better Than They Seem and Will Almost Surely Get Worse" (2014). Mercatus Center.
"Ronald Coase: An Appreciation" (2014). The Independent Review.
Tribute to James Buchanan, "Worldy Philosopher and Constitutional Idealist" (2013). The Political Economist.
"Interview with John Nye" (2011). Economic Sociology. The European Electronic Newsletter.
"Why Things Will Feel Worse As They Get Better: The Downside of Growing Consumption Equality" (2009). Cato-unbound.org.
"Nobel Pioneers" (2009). Forbes.com.
"Standards of Living and Modern Economic Growth" (2007) in David Henderson, ed. The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, 4th edition, Liberty Fund.
"Disputing Tastes" (2003). Library of Economics and Liberty.
"The Myth of Free-Trade Britain" (2003). Library of Economics and Liberty.
"Economic Growth and True Inequality" (2002). Library of Economics and Liberty.

Franz M. Loyola, Essays on the Economic History of the Philippines: From Unintended Benefits to the Spanish Empire to the Political Economy of Rice Policy (2019)
Patricia Moser, The Political Economy of Tobacco Taxation: Essays in Public Choice (2017)
Theresa S. Finley, Essays on Religion and Institutions in European Economic History (2017)
Aaron M. Honsowetz, Federal Preemption and Deregulation of the United States Telegraph Industry (2015)
Meng Xue, Essays on Culture, Human Capital and Development in China (2015)
Helen Yang, Land and Peasants in Late Imperial China: An Economic Analysis (2013)
Nakul Kumar, The Political Economy of Indian Disaster Relief (2012)
Andrew Wallen, The Blessings of Security: Economic Consequences of Conflict (2011)
Robert Warren Anderson, How to Expect the Portuguese Inquisition (2011)

Fall 2015: ECON 829 | Economics of Institutions

7:20 PM—10:00 PM Thursdays – Carow Auditorium

Analyzes framework of rules and institutions for economic activities and transactions. Includes emergence and working properties of different institutions, and classical and contemporary approaches to economic theory of institutions.

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Prerequisites: ECON 611 or 811 or permission of instructor.

Spring 2015: ECON 823 | Topics in Economic History

04:30 PM —07:10 PM Tuesdays – Carow Hall 01

Offers economic analysis of various historical epochs including Industrial Revolution, evolution of political reform, rise of unions, and growth of government.