Karen I. Vaughn

Dr. Karen I. Vaughn is Emeritus Distinguished Senior Fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and Emeritus Faculty at George Mason University, where she served as chair of the department from 1982-89. She earned her PhD and MA in Economics from Duke University and her BA from Queens College, CUNY. 

Her fields of interest include the history of economic thought, economic methodology, Austrian economics, and political economy. She is the author of Essays on Austrian Economics and Political Economy (Mercatus Center, 2021), Austrian Economics in America: the Migration of a Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 1994), and John Locke: Economist and Social Scientist (University of Chicago Press, 1980). 

A former editor of the History of Economics Society Bulletin (1978-94), she has served on the editorial boards of History of Political Economy, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, and Advances in Austrian Economics. She has held the offices of Vice-President (1986-87) and President (1992-93) of the History of Economics Society, member of the Board of Trustees, Vice-President and President of the Southern Economics Association (1994-1995). She is also the first President and founding member of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics.

Her articles on Austrian economics, economic theory and the history of economic thought have appeared in journals such as Economics Inquiry, Southern Economic Journal, History of Political Economy, Kyklos, Review of Political Economy, as well as in numerous edited volumes.