Munger Bio

Professor, Department of Political Science

Professor, Departments of Economics and Public Policy

Director, PPE Program at Duke

Prof. Munger received his Ph.D. in Economics at Washington University in St. Louis in 1984. Following his graduate training, he worked as a staff economist at the Federal Trade Commission. His first teaching job was in the Economics Department at Dartmouth College, followed by appointments in the Political Science Department at the University of Texas at Austin (1986-1990) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1990-7). At UNC he directed the MPA Program, which trains public service professionals, especially city and county management.

He moved to Duke in 1997, and was Chair of the Political Science Department from 2000 through 2010 . He has won three University-wide teaching awards (the Howard Johnson Award, an NAACP "Image" Award for teaching about race, and admission to the Bass Society of Teaching Fellows). He is currently director of the interdisciplinary PPE Program at Duke University, working under Dr. Geoffrey Brennan who directs the joint Duke-UNC PPE Program. Munger also serves on the Jack Miller Center Academic Council, for which he contributed to the JMC Quarterly Report.

His research interests include the study of the morality of exchange and the working of legislative institutions in producing policy. Much of his recent work has been in philosophy, examining the concept of truly voluntary exchange, a concept for which Munger coined the term "euvoluntary." He has created a new blog devoted to investigating examples of, and controversies about, euvoluntary exchange.

In addition to more than 100 articles and papers published in professional journals and edited volumes, Prof. Munger has four books, three of them in collaboration with the late Dr. Melvin Hinich. His fourth and most recent book, Analyzing Policy, was published in August 2000 by W.W. Norton. He blogs at Kids Prefer Cheese and Division of Labour.

Some career highlights:

· Served as Director of the Master of Public Administration Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, 2003-2006.

· President of the Public Choice Society, an interdisciplinary academic society with members in 16 nations. (2006-2008)

· North American Editor of the refereed academic journal Public Choice, 2000-2006.

· Keynote Speaker at Libertarian National Convention in Denver, Colorado , 2008.

· Ran for Governor of North Carolina as Libertarian Nominee, participating in four televised debates with major party candidates, 2008.

· Currently Director of PPE Program at Duke, and President of the North Carolina Political Science Association.

· More than 50 podcasts and popular articles are available at the Liberty Fund website, Econtalk, or at iTunes U.