Jeffrey Alan "Jeff" Miron ( /ˈmaɪrən/; born January 31, 1957) is an American economist. He served as the chairman of the department of economics at Boston University from 1992 to 1998, ^[1] and currently teaches at Harvard University, serving as a senior lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in Harvard's economics department. ^[2] Miron holds the position of director of economic policy studies at the Cato Institute. ^[3]

Biography

Miron is an outspoken libertarian. He was one of the 166 economists to sign a letter to congressional leaders in opposition to the bailout plan put forth by the U.S. federal government in response to the financial crisis of 2007–2008. He advocated that those companies that floundered during the crisis should be bankrupt instead of receiving government help. ^[4] He has proposed three policy reforms to help the US economy recover from the financial crisis: cutting entitlements, freezing regulation, and replacing the existing tax code with a flat tax on consumption. ^[5] Miron has also spoken out against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, arguing that it is economically unfeasible and will increase the US deficit; instead, he suggests limiting government intervention is the best way to lower overall health care costs and make health care accessible to the most people. ^[6] He has studied the effects of drug criminalization for 15 years, and argues that all drugs should be legalized. ^{[7] [8]} He supports open borders, arguing that the United States should impose "no immigration restrictions at all." ^[9] He opposes foreign interventions because "they cost far more than initially acknowledged while failing to help either America or the target countries." ^[10]

Writings

• Casebook for Use With Macroeconomics. Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers. 1992. ISBN  978-0-87901-597-8.
• The Economics of Seasonal Cycles. The MIT Press. 1996. ISBN  978-0-262-13323-4.
• Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition. Independent Institute. 2004. ISBN  978-0-945999-90-4.
• Libertarianism, from A to Z. Basic Books. 2010. ISBN  978-0-465-01943-4.

References

External links

• Miron at Harvard University Department of Economics Archived 2009-02-20 at the Wayback Machine
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Miron on Real Law Radio – discussing the benefits of legalizing marijuana from an economic perspective (March 27, 2010).
• Jeffrey Miron publications indexed by Google Scholar