Richard E. Wagner

Richard Edward Wagner (born April 28, 1941) is an American economist. He is professor emeritus of economics at George Mason University. He works primarily in the fields of public finance, public choice, and complexity economics.

Wagner received his doctorate in economics from the University of Virginia, studying under James M. Buchanan. Wagner's work centers on the notion that macroeconomic phenomena are emergent, rather than being objects of choice, and the relationship between Systems theory and Economics. In addition to Buchanan, major influences on his thought include Carl Menger, Frank Knight, G. L. S. Shackle and Thomas Schelling.

Selected publications The Fiscal Organization of American Federalism (1971) "Revenue Structure, Fiscal Illusion, and Budgetary Choice" in Public Choice vol. 25, no. 1 (1976) "Institutional Constraints and Local Community Formation" in American Economic Review vol. 66, no. 2 (1976) Democracy in Deficit: The Political Legacy of Lord Keynes (co-authored with Buchanan) (1977) Public Finance: Revenues and Expenditures in a Democratic Society (1983) To Promote the General Welfare: Market Processes vs. Political Transfers (1989) The Economics of Smoking (co-authored with Robert Tollison) (1991) "Romance, Realism, and Economic Reform" (co-authored with Tollison) in Kyklos vol. 44, no. 1 (1991) Trade Protection in the United States (co-authored with Charles Rowley and Willem Thorbecke) (1995) Fiscal Sociology and the Theory of Public Finance (2007) Mind, Society and Human Action: time and knowledge in a theory of social-economy (2010) "A macro economy as an ecology of plans" in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization vol. 82, no. 2-3 (2012) Politics as a Peculiar Business: Insights from a theory of entangled political economy (2016) Macroeconomics as Systems Theory (2020)