Karen I. Vaughn

Karen Vaughn is the former president of the Southern Economics Association and the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics. She is the author of several articles on Austrian economics and a book entitled Austrian Economics in America: the Migration of a Tradition.

Karen I. Vaughn (B.A. Queens College, CUNY, 1966; M.A. and Ph.D Duke University, 1969 and 1971) is Professor of Economics at George Mason University, where she served as chair of the department from 1982-89. Her fields of interest include the history of economic thought, economic methodology, Austrian economics and political economy.

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 newly organized Society for the Development of Austrian Economics.

Professor Vaughn is author of John Locke: Economist and Social Scientist (University of Chicago Pres, 1980) and Austrian Economics in America: the Migration of a Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 1994), an account of the development of the ideas of modern Austrian economist such as Friedreich Hayek, Israel Kirzner and Ludwig Lachmann. She is also editor of Perspectives on the History of Economic Thought: Method, Competition, Conflict and Measurement in the Twentieth Century (Edward Elgar, 1994).

Her articles on the subject of 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 and Review of Political Economy as well as in numerous edited volumes of essays. Her current research interests include reassessing the Austrian interpretation of market economies in a post-communist world, and developing a pro-market view of feminism.