Emergence, Entanglement, and Political Economy

David Hebert is an Assistant Professor of Economics and the department chair at Aquinas College. He holds a B.S. in Economics and Mathematics from Hillsdale College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University. During graduate school, he was an F.A. Hayek Fellow with the Mercatus Center and a Fellow with the Department of Health Administration and Policy and also worked with the Joint Economic Committee in the U.S. Congress. Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI and Troy University in Troy, AL, and was also a Fellow with the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, where he authored a comprehensive report on Federal budget process reform.

His area of expertise lies in public choice and public finance. Specifically, his research aims to address the question of why democracies around the world and throughout history systematically produce tax codes that are long, complicated, and contain numerous loopholes despite universal popular support for tax codes that are short, simple, and contain few (if any) loopholes. His work has appeared in numerous academic publications as well as popular outlets such as The Hill, The Daily Caller, The Ripon Forum, and Investor's Business Daily.

Diana Thomas is an Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute for Economic Inquiry at the Heider College of Business at Creighton University. Previously, she served as an Assistant Professor at Utah State University. A German native, she earned her Diploma in Business Administration from Fachhochschule Aachen and her B.S. in Finance from George Mason University. After gaining some experience as a junior portfolio manager at a mutual fund management company in Frankfurt, Germany, Dr. Thomas returned to George Mason University to complete her M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics. In her research, Dr. Thomas explores the unintended consequences of regulation and the role political entrepreneurs play in changing the rules that govern society. She has published in a number of academic outlets, including Public Choice , Kyklos , Applied Economics , the Southern Economic Journal , and the Journal of Banking and Finance .