Barry R. Weingast:

About

Barry R. Weingast is the Ward C. Krebs Family Professor in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has served as Chair of the Department of Political Science from 1996 through 2001. Weingast is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on the political foundation of markets, economic reform, and regulation. He has written extensively on issues related to the political economy of development, federalism and decentralization, legal institutions and the rule of law, and democracy. Weingast is a co-author of the book 'Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History' and 'Analytic Narratives,' and he has edited 'The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy.' His work has earned numerous awards, including the William H. Riker Prize, the Heinz Eulau Prize, the Franklin L. Burdette Pi Sigma Alpha Award, and the James L. Barr Memorial Prize in Public Economics.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Law and economics
• Sociology
• Law
• Economics
• Business
• Market economy
• Geography

Selected publications

• Persistent inefficiency

  Routledge eBooks · 2020 · 12 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Adam Smith forcefully argued that slavery was highly inefficient, implying that freeing the slaves was Pareto improving: both slaves and their masters could be made better off without slavery. In modern, developed economies, the judicial system maintains the rule of law and enforces contracts, affording credible solutions to double-sided commitment problems. But the economies Smith discusses, such as medieval Europe, lacked a functioning system of justice associated with the rule of law. Smith’s…

  PublisherDOI

• Constitutions and Commitment:

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2021-03-09 · 11 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The Functions of Constitutional Monarchy: Why Kings and Queens Survive in a World of Republics

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01 · 10 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Political Stability and Civil War:

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2020-07-21 · 8 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Deriving ‘general principles’ 1

  2020-12-08 · 7 citations

  book-chapterSenior author

  Adam Smith’s approach to uncovering general principles of order and the conditions under which that order changes is evident throughout his lesser-known works as well, from his essay on the formation of languages to his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres. The incentives to act according to the general principles of morality arise from our desire for social approval, to be seen as worthy of the fellow-feeling of others, to seek peace of mind and our own self-approbation. Smith assumes that,…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Douglass C. North

  51 shared

• John Wallis

  University of Cambridge

  45 shared

• Gillian K. Hadfield

  39 shared

• George Mason

  Royal North Shore Hospital

  26 shared

• Maria Niles

  Rice University

  25 shared

• Michelle Boyd

  25 shared

• Kenneth A. Shepsle

  Harvard University Press

  25 shared

• Toni‐Michelle C. Travis

  25 shared

Awards & honors

• William H. Riker Prize
• Heinz Eulau Prize
• Franklin L. Burdette Pi Sigma Alpha Award
• James L. Barr Memorial Prize in Public Economics

Similar researchers at Stanford University

• Jon Krosnick:h-95
• Shanto Iyengar:h-70
• Gary Cox:h-69