Eileen Norcross
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Senior Research FellowVice President of Policy Research
Eileen Norcross is the Vice President of Policy Research and a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Her research focuses on questions of public finance, how economic institutions support or hamper economic resiliency and civil society, the relationship between culture and institutions, and polycentricity in governance. She specializes in fiscal federalism and institutions, state and local government finance, public governance, and economic development.
Her work has been cited in various media outlets, and her op-eds have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Christian Science Monitor, US News & World Report, and Forbes.
Norcross has testified before Congress on the Community Development Block Grant program, state and local pension underfunding, municipal bankruptcy, and the use of technology to monitor stimulus funding. She has also testified on fiscal policies in Pennsylvania, Florida, California, New Hampshire, and Montana. She served as a public member on the Virginia Commission on Employee Retirement Security and Pension Reform from 2016 to 2017. Her academic publications include articles in the Maryland Journal, The Journal of Law, Economics and Policy, the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, and a book chapter in The Political Economy of Hurricane Katrina and Community Rebound, edited by Emily Chamlee-Wright and Virgil Henry Storr.
She received both her MA in economics and her BA in economics and American history from Rutgers University.
Latest Work
- | Housing Housing
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
For Public Pensions, the Future Is Now
- | Low Interest Rates and the Economy: A Mercatus Colloquium Low Interest Rates and the Economy: A Mercatus Colloquium
- | Monetary Policy Monetary Policy
- | Research Papers Research Papers
What Low Interest Rates Mean for State and Local Government Pensions
- | Housing Housing
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Fewer Regulations Key to Scranton's Revival
- | Housing Housing
- | Research Papers Research Papers
Can Power Be Restored in the Electric City?
- | Government Spending Government Spending
- | Policy Briefs Policy Briefs
Underfunded Pensions: The Expanding and Escalating Challenge
- | Housing Housing
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Connecticut's Fiscal Condition among Worst

- | Housing Housing
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Risky Investments Hurt Alabama Pension Program
- | Housing Housing
- | Research Papers Research Papers
Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition | 2016 Edition
- | Housing Housing
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Is Your State the Next Puerto Rico?
Latest Work
- | Housing Housing
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
For Public Pensions, the Future Is Now
- | Low Interest Rates and the Economy: A Mercatus Colloquium Low Interest Rates and the Economy: A Mercatus Colloquium
- | Monetary Policy Monetary Policy
- | Research Papers Research Papers
What Low Interest Rates Mean for State and Local Government Pensions
- | Housing Housing
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Fewer Regulations Key to Scranton's Revival
- | Housing Housing
- | Research Papers Research Papers
Can Power Be Restored in the Electric City?
- | Government Spending Government Spending
- | Policy Briefs Policy Briefs
Underfunded Pensions: The Expanding and Escalating Challenge
- | Housing Housing
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Connecticut's Fiscal Condition among Worst

- | Housing Housing
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Risky Investments Hurt Alabama Pension Program
- | Housing Housing
- | Research Papers Research Papers
Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition | 2016 Edition
- | Housing Housing
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary