Colin Harris
Colin Harris is the Tomson Family Chair and associate professor of law and economics at St. Olaf College, book-review editor at Public Choice, and an academic affiliate of the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE).
His research focuses on law & economics, property rights, and political economy, including the governance of institutions and collective-action problems.
At St. Olaf College, Harris has served as associate professor and previously as assistant professor of law and economics. Earlier, he was a graduate lecturer at George Mason University, where he taught economics and law & economics courses.
Harris is the co-author of the book “The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights” (with Meina Cai, Ilia Murtazashvili, and Jennifer Murtazashvili).
He received the Elinor Ostrom Prize for the best full-length article in the Journal of Institutional Economics and held a dissertation fellowship and multiple graduate fellowships through the Mercatus Center’s F.A. Hayek Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He also received a Humane Studies Fellowship from the Institute for Humane Studies.
Harris earned a Ph.D. in economics and a master’s in economics from George Mason University and a bachelor’s from Florida State University.
Colin Harris
Mar 03, 2026
Law & economics traces its intellectual roots to the University of Chicago. That lineage still shapes how the field is understood. Chicago price theory—especially Gary Becker’s (1976) systematic application of maximization, equilibrium, and stable preferences across social life, and George Stigler’s (1992, p. 459) suggestion that “every durable social institution or practice is efficient, or ... The Evaluative Emptiness of the Economic Approach to Law
