Peter Leeson

Peter Leeson
Born	(1979-07-29) July 29, 1979 (age 37)
Nationality	American
Institution	University of Chicago (2009–2010) George Mason University (2007–present) West Virginia University (2005–2007)
Field	Economics
Alma mater	Hillsdale College George Mason University
Influences	Gary Becker, David D. Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, George Stigler, Gordon Tullock
Contributions	The Invisible Hook
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Peter T. Leeson (born July 29, 1979) is Professor of Economics and BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at George Mason University. He is best known for his work on Caribbean pirates, which uses rational choice theory to explain pirate behavior. His book The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates examines the economic conditions and incentives that influenced pirate behavior and says it led to their purported influence on democracy. Leeson is also known for his writings on law and economics, which use rational choice theory to explain legal institutions.

Leeson earned a B.A. in economics at Hillsdale College in 2001 and a Ph.D. in economics at George Mason University in 2005 with thesis titled Cooperation and conflict: self-enforcing exchange among socially heterogeneous agents under the supervision of Peter Boettke. In 2003–2004 he was a Visiting Fellow in Political Economy and Government at Harvard University, and in 2005, he was the F.A. Hayek Fellow at the London School of Economics.

In 2005, Leeson accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Economics at West Virginia University, where he remained for two years. In 2007, he left WVU to accept a position at George Mason University where he is Professor of Economics and BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism. In 2009, Leeson temporarily left George Mason for the University of Chicago, where he was a Visiting Professor of Economics, returning to George Mason a year later. He is the North American Editor of Public Choice and on the editorial boards of several other journals.

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