Noel Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Economics Department at George Mason University. He is also a member of the Center for the Study of Public Choice and a Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center. He earned his Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis. His interests lie at the intersection of economic history, development, and the new institutional economics.
Noel’s recent research has focused on questions such as, “How do states build administrative and fiscal capacity?”, “What is the relationship between state capacity and growth enhancing economic and social outcomes such as religious tolerance or free trade?”, and “How has the disease environment and climate affected economic and social outcomes under different institutional settings?” This research has been published in outlets including The Journal of Law and Economics, Explorations in Economic History, The Economic Journal, and the Journal of Development Economics.