Senior Research Fellow, Senior Program and Operations Director of Academic & Student Programs, and Senior Fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Stefanie Haeffele is a Senior Research Fellow and the Senior Program and Operations Director of Academic & Student Programs at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where she works on a team aimed to recruit, train, and support graduate students pursuing careers in academia, government, and policy. She is also a Senior Fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center.
Stefanie received her PhD in economics at George Mason University in 2016. She is also an alum of the Mercatus Center MA Fellowship program. After receiving an MA in economics at George Mason University in 2010, she completed a Presidential Management Fellowship where she worked in emergency and disaster operations at both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and then the US Forest Service. She earned a BBA in economics and in finance from the University of North Alabama in 2007.
Her work has examined post-disaster community recovery as well as the political economy of nonprofit organizations, specifically focusing on organizations that attempt to provide affordable housing to the poor.
Living Better Together: Social Relations and Economic Governance in the Work of Ostrom and Zelizer. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. (edited with Virgil Henry Storr)
Nudging Public Policy: Examining the Benefits and Limitations of Paternalistic Public Policies. London: Rowman & Little International, 2021. (edited with Rosemarie Fike and Arielle John)
Hayek’s Tensions: Reexamining the Political Economy and Philosophy of F. A. Hayek. Arlington, VA: Mercatus Center at George Mason University, 2020. (edited with Solomon M. Stein and Virgil Henry Storr)
Bottom-up Responses to Crisis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. (edited with Virgil Henry Storr)
Government Responses to Crisis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. (edited with Virgil Henry Storr)
The Need for Humility in Policymaking: Lessons from Regulatory Policy. London: Rowman & Little International, 2019. (edited with Anne Hobson)
Informing Public Policy: Analyzing Contemporary US and International Policy Issues Through the Lens of Market Process Economics. London: Rowman & Little International, 2019. (edited with Abigail R. Hall and Adam Millsap)
Knowledge and Incentives in Policy: Using Public Choice and Market Process Theory to Analyze Public Policy Issues. London: Rowman & Little International, 2018. (edited)
Exploring the Political Economy and Social Philosophy of James M. Buchanan. London: Rowman & Little International, 2018. (edited with Paul Dragos Aligica and Christopher J. Coyne)
Mainline Economics: Six Nobel Lectures in the Tradition of Adam Smith. Arlington, VA: Mercatus Center, September 2016. (edited with Peter J. Boettke and Virgil Henry Storr)
Community Revival in the Wake of Disaster: Lessons in Local Entrepreneurship. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, October 2015. (with Virgil Henry Storr and Laura E. Grube)
“Beyond Hayekian Equality,” Social Philosophy & Policy, Winter 2022 (2023), 39 (2): 188–209. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Viviana Zelizer: Relational Exchange and Association,” The Independent Review, 2023, 28 (2): 313–322. (with Jessica Carges*)
“The Perils of Regulating COVID-19: Insights from Kirznerian Entrepreneurship and Ostromian Polycentricity,” Economics of Governance, 2023, 24 (3): 331–355. (with Jordan K. Lofthouse and Agustin Forzani*)
“Disaster Challenges and Entrepreneurial Responses,” in Handbook on the Economics of Natural Disasters, ed. Mark Skidmore. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022. (with Virgil Henry Storr and Alexander W. Craig)
“Entrepreneurship during a pandemic,” European Journal of Law and Economics, 2022, 54, 83–105. (with Virgil Henry Storr, Jordan K. Lofthouse, and Anne Hobson*)
“Understanding Disasters: Questions Should Drive Methods and Other Interdisciplinary Lessons,” in Research Methods of Disaster and Emergency Management: Approaches in Application, ed. Jason D. Rivera. New York: Routledge, 2021. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Crisis as a Source of Social Capital: Adaptation and Formation of Social Capital during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Cosmos + Taxis, 2021, 9 (5+6): 94–108. (with Virgil Henry Storr, Laura E. Grube, and Jordan K. Lofthouse)
“Essential or Not? Knowledge Problems and COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders,” Southern Economics Journal, 2021, 87 (4): 1229–1249. (with Virgil Henry Storr, Jordan K. Lofthouse, and Laura E. Grube)
“Rhetoric as a way of limiting the range of acceptable policy positions,” Journal of Private Enterprise, 2021, 36 (1): 1–16. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Commercial social spaces in the post-disaster context,” Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, 2020, 9(3): 303–317. (with Alexander W. Craig*)
“The Role of Entrepreneurs in Facilitating Remittances in Cuba,” in Lessons on Foreign Aid and Economic Development, eds. Nabamita Dutta and Claudia Williamson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. (with Anne Hobson*)
“Understanding Nonprofit Social Enterprises: Lessons from Austrian Economics,” The Review of Austrian Economics, 2019, 32(3): 229–249. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Is Social Justice a Mirage?” The Independent Review, 2019, 24(1): 145–155. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Adam Smith and the study of ethics in a commercial society,” in Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics, ed. Mark D. White. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Hierarchical Management Structures and Housing the Poor: An Analysis of Habitat for Humanity in Birmingham, Alabama,” Journal of Private Enterprise, 2019, 34(1): 15–37. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Entrepreneurs drive community revival in the wake of disaster,” The Review of Austrian Economics, 2018, 31(4): 479–484. (with Virgil Henry Storr and Laura E. Grube)
“Unreasonableness and Heterogeneity in Buchanan’s Constitutional Project,” in Buchanan’s Tensions: Reexamining the Political Economy and Philosophy of James M. Buchanan, eds. Peter J. Boettke and Solomon Stein. Arlington, VA: Mercatus Center at George Mason University, 2018. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Entrepreneurship and Disaster Recovery,” Citizens and Statesmen: An Annual Review of Political Theory and Public Life, 2018, 11: 75–90. (with Alexander W. Craig*)
“Learning from Disasters in Mississippi,” in Promoting Prosperity in Mississippi, eds. Brandon N. Cline, Russell S. Sobel, and Claudia R. Williamson. Starkville, MS: Mississippi State University Institute for Market Studies, 2018. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Social Capital and Social Learning after Hurricane Sandy,” The Review of Austrian Economics, 2017, 30(4): 447–467. (with Virgil Henry Storr and Laura E. Grube)
“Polycentric orders and post-disaster recovery: a case study of one Orthodox Jewish community following Hurricane Sandy,” Journal of Institutional Economics, 2017, 13(4): 875–897. (with Virgil Henry Storr and Laura E. Grube)
“The Organizational Evolution of the American National Red Cross: An Austrian and Bloomington approach to organizational growth and expansion,” in The Austrian and Bloomington Schools of Political Economy (Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 22), eds. Paul Dragos Aligica, Paul A. Lewis, and Virgil Henry Storr. Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2017. (with Laura E. Grube and ErikaGrace Davies*)
“Local Recovery: How Robust Community Rebound Necessarily Comes from the Bottom Up,” in The Future of Disaster Management in the US: Rethinking Legislation, Policy, and Finance, ed. Amy Lepore, New York: Routledge, 2017. (with Emily Chamlee-Wright and Virgil Henry Storr)
“Austrian contributions to the literature on natural and unnatural disasters,” in New Thinking in Austrian Political Economy (Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 19), eds. Christopher J. Coyne and Virgil Henry Storr, Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2015. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Grover Cleveland against the Special Interests,” The Independent Review, 2014, 18(4): 581–596. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Post-disaster Community Recovery in Heterogeneous, Loosely Connected Communities,” Review of Social Economy, 2012, 70(3): 295–314. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Governance for living better together: A special issue on public administration and self-governance,” The Review of Austrian Economics, 2021, 34: 341—346. (with Yuliya Yatsyshina)
Guest editor for the special issue on public administration and self governance, featuring a symposium on Public Governance and the Classical Liberal Perspective, by Paul Dragos Aligica, Peter J. Boettke, and Vlad Tarko (2019) and Public Entrepreneurship, Citizenship, and Self-Governance by Paul Dragos Aligica (2018)
“The COVID-19 Global Pandemic: Local Recovery and Implications,” University of North Alabama Regional Economic Update, July 2020, 2 (1): 2—3.
“Voices: The Chaos after the Storm: Create Space for Entrepreneurship,” One Earth, 2020, 2 (6): 490. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Foreword to the Mercatus Edition” in Humane Economics: Essays in Honor of Don Lavoie, ed. Jack High, Arlington, VA: Mercatus Center at George Mason University, 2017. (with Solomon Stein)
“Alternatives to a Burgeoning Bureaucracy: Lessons from Ludwig von Mises's Bureaucracy,” The Library of Economics and Liberty: Book Review, Liberty Classics, February 1, 2021. (with Anne Hobson*)
“Polycentricity Amidst a Pandemic,” The Vienna Circle, June 17, 2020. (with Jessica Carges* and Anne Hobson*)
“Reassessing the Notion of Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” The Vienna Circle, April 30, 2020. (with Alice Calder)
“Coming Back from COVID-19: Lessons in Entrepreneurship from Disaster Recovery Research,” The Vienna Circle, April 30, 2020. (with Anne Hobson* and Virgil Henry Storr)
“The Quest of Social Science: Hayek’s Pursuit and the Future of Inquiry,” The Vienna Circle, November 21, 2019. (with Marcus Shera**)
“Inside Leviathan: Lessons from Gordon Tullock’s Bureaucracy,” The Library of Economics and Liberty: Liberty Classics, November 4, 2019. (with Anne Hobson*)
“‘The Intellectuals and Socialism’ 70 Years Later,” The Vienna Circle, June 18, 2019. (with Molly Harnish**)
“Cubans and Americans Caught in the Political Crossfire,” The Bridge, May 13, 2019. (with Anne Hobson*)
“75 Years Down The Road to Serfdom,” The Vienna Circle, April 30, 2019. (with Michael Schultz*)
“Female Entrepreneurship and Disaster Recovery,” The Bridge, March 14, 2019. (with Anne Hobson)
“This Hurricane Season, Embrace Community Responses,” ArcaMax, June 4, 2018. (with Anne Hobson*)
“Getting Federal Disaster Assistance Is Too Difficult,” Inside Sources, November 20, 2017. (with Rosemarie Fike)
“Nobel Laureate Thaler pushes priors of a stubborn discipline,” The Hill, October 14, 2017. (with Peter J. Boettke)
“People Matter: The Social Element of Disaster Response and Recovery,” Research Counts, University of Colorado-Boulder Natural Hazard Center, October 10, 2017. (with Virgil Henry Storr) (republished at The Vienna Circle on December 8, 2017)
“Don't Hamper Disaster Recovery: The National Flood Insurance Program hampers recovery after disasters like Hurricane Harvey and Irma,” U.S. News and World Report, October 10, 2017. (with Joe Brunk*)
“An Appeal to Moderation: Adam Smith is right: Moderation in politics is paramount in today's polarized America,” U.S. News and World Report, August 7, 2017. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“The Case for Ordinary Economics: 3 basic economic principles can guide us through today’s chaotic political landscape,” U.S. News and World Report, June 5, 2017. (with Peter J. Boettke)
“Disasters Should Be Dull: But as long as distance authorities are in charge, that’s impossible,” Reason Magazine, February 2017 (with Daniel M. Rothschild)
“Burn up: Government wildfire policy has actually made fires worse,” U.S. News and World Report, December 5, 2016.
“Louisiana Has What It Needs to Recover After Devastating Floods,” The Fiscal Times, August 29, 2016. (with Scott Burns*)
“The Post-Katrina Model: California should embrace lessons from Hurricane Katrina and lead its post-wildfire recovery from the bottom up,” US News and World Report, August 8, 2016. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Make Disaster Recovery A Success: Local entrepreneurs are better suited to drive recovery efforts after natural disasters,” US News and World Report, July 11, 2016. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“Neighborly Solutions to a Blizzard of Problems,” Washington Post, February 1, 2016. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“The Education Industry Needs to Be Disrupted by an Uber,” U.S. News and World Report, January 11, 2016. (with Peter J. Boettke)
“Hurricane Patricia Recovery Effort Should Be Led by Local Entrepreneurs,” U.S. News and World Report, November 2, 2015. (with Virgil Henry Storr)
“It’s Not All Relative When It Comes To Income Inequality,” The Huffington Post: The Blog, November 14, 2014. (with Rachel Reese*)
“The Attainable American Dream,” The Huffington Post: The Blog, July 22, 2014. (with Rachel Reese*)
“More Politics Than Economics: Brat’s Views on Immigration Contradict Economic Reality,” The Huffington Post: The Blog, June 24, 2014. (with Courtney Michaluk*)
“Opinion: Financial Reforms Threaten Innovative Lending Option,” AOL News, June 17, 2010.
*Graduate student co-author
**Undergraduate student co-author
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