January 2007
JENNIFER A. ROBACK MORSE
Senior Research Fellow in Economics
Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty
Grand Rapids, MI
BIOGRAPHICAL DATA:
Born: November 12, 1953, U.S.
Home Address: 935 Parkwood Ave.
Vista, CA
SS#: 275-4812
Phone: 760-295-9278
FAX: 760-295-9278
e-mail:
Personal: Married to Robert Leonhard Morse
2 children
Nicolae Paul Morse, born 11-10-88,
Suceava, Romania, adopted April 14, 1991
Anne Roback Morse, born 10-8-91
Foster parent, San Diego County, 8 children between March 2003 and August 2006
EDUCATION:
Ohio State University, B.A. (Economics) cum laude, 1975
University of Rochester, M.S. (Economics) 1978
University of Rochester, Ph.D. (Economics) 1980
Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Chicago Economics Dept 1979-80
MAJOR AREA OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH
The social significance of the family. Policy areas include divorce, child care, step families, gay marriage, human sexuality, cohabitation, child custody.
BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS:
Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World, (Dallas, TX: Spence Publishing, 2005).
Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn’t Work (Dallas, TX: Spence Publishing, 2001).
A Matter of Choice: A Critique of Comparable Worth by a Skeptical Feminist, New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1986.
CAREER HISTORY
Senior Research Fellow in Economics,
Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty Sept 2005-
Research Fellow, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution
and Peace, Stanford University Oct. 1997-August 2005
Associate Professor, George Mason University 1988-Dec.1996
John M. Olin Visiting Scholar in Law and Economics,
Cornell Law School Fall, 1993
Coordinator, Diversity Studies Program 1994-1996
Coordinator, Dissertation Fellows Program 1990-1996
Organizer, Public Choice Outreach Program 1987-1996
Coordinator, Economics Graduate Program 1988-1989
Research Associate, Center for Study of Public Choice 1985-1996
Assistant Professor, George Mason University 1985-1988
Assistant Professor, Yale University 1980-1985
Instructor, American Economic Association Summer 1982
Minorities Program
University of Chicago, Post-Doctoral Fellow 1979-1980
Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic 1979
Research-West
SELECTED RECENT ACTIVITIES
Participant, “Why Marriage is in the Public Interest: A Summit for Religious Leaders,” sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute, Princeton University, November 3-5, 2005
Speaker, Majority Leader’s Lecture Series, “Why Reproductive Freedom is an Illusion,” co-sponsored by Congressman Tom DeLay and the Wilberforce Forum, Washington, D.C. September 15, 2005.
Speaker, Family Research Council, “Natural, Organic Sex as an Alternative to Recreational Sex and the Hook-up,” Washington, D.C. September 14, 2005.
Radio, Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World, featured on the Dr. Laura show, August, 2005.
Speaker, Alliance Defense Fund, Blackstone Legal Fellowship, summer intern program for law students, “Marriage in the Modern World,” August 2, 2005.
Lecturer, Symposium sponsored by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, Grand Rapids, MI, June 2005.
Consultant, YMCA of Greater Des Moines, January-July 2005. (Crafted a Policy Statement, defining their pro-marriage vision of the family for purposes of membership policies. Created a Vision Statement to guide them in further developing their pro-marriage, pro-family mission.)
Speaker, Conference for Mexican Bishops, “The Right of Economic Initiative: the Free Person in the Free Economy,” sponsored by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, Orlando FL, June 2005
Participant in Debate on Same Sex Marriage, “One Man, One Woman, for Life,” sponsored by the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, April 2005.
ACADEMIC HONORS:
Pope Leo XIII Award for Economics, awarded by the Natural
Law Study Center, Arlington, VA October 1997
Templeton Foundation Honor Roll, 1st Prize Winner April 1989
(national competition for teaching excellence)
John M. Olin Faculty Fellowship 1987-88
Goto Prize, Mont Pelerin Society, North American Sept. 1986
Co-winner; International Third Prize
Earhart Foundation, Fellowship 1983, 1987, Spring 1992
JOURNAL ARTICLES
“Rationality Means Being Willing to Say You’re Sorry,” Social Philosophy and Policy, Vol. 22, no. 2, (Summer 2005), pp. 204-225.
“Marriage and the Limits of Contract,” Policy Review, No. 130, April/May 2005, pp. 59-70.
“The Limits of Equality: Why the Needy Need Us More Than We Need Equality,” Thomas Jefferson Law Review, Vol. 26, No. 1, Fall 2003, pp. 51-64.
“Parents or Prisons,” Policy Review, August/September, 2003, No. 120, pp. 49-60.
“The Appeal of the Empire of Lies,” Review Essay of Francois Furet, The Passing of an Illusion: The Idea of Communism in theTwentieth Century; The Indepdendent Review, Vol. V. No. 2 (Fall 2000), pp 283-293.
“No Families, No Freedom: Human Flourishing in a Free Society,” Social Philosophy and Policy, Vol. 16, no. 1 (Winter 1999) pp. 290-314.
"Who is Rational Economic Man?" Social Philosophy and Policy, Vol. 14, no. 1, (Winter 1997), pp. 179-206.
“Constitutional Rules, Political Accidents and the Course of History: New Light on the Annexation of Texas,” The Independent Review, Vol. II, no.2 (Fall 1997), pp.173-200.
“The Modern State as an Occasion of Sin: A Public Choice Analysis of the Welfare State,” Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy, Vol. 11, no. 2, (1997), pp. 531-548.
"Beyond Having it All," Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 18, Winter 1995.
"Beyond Equality," Georgetown Law Review, Vol. 82, No. 1, November 1993.
"The Separation of Race and State," Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, 14 (Winter 1991) No. 1.
"Plural But Equal: Group Identity and Voluntary Integration," Social Philosophy and Policy, Vol. 8 (1991) No. 2 .
"Eighteenth-Century Objections to Commerce: A Modern Economic Analysis," Publius: The Journal of Federalism 20 (Spring 1990) pp. 53-68.
"Rules vs. Discretion: Berea College v. Kentucky," International Journal of Group Tensions, 1990, Vol. 20, No. 1.
"Racism As Rent-Seeking," Economic Inquiry Oct. 1989.
"W.H. Hutt's The Economics of the Colour Bar," Managerial & Decision Economics, Winter, 1988.
"Wages, Rents & Amenities: Differences Among Workers & Regions," Economic Inquiry, January 1988.
"The Incidence and Effects of Public Debt in the Absence of Fiscal Illusion," (joint with James Buchanan), Public Finance Quarterly, January 1987. (lead article)
"The Determinants of the Local Unemployment Rate," Southern Economic Journal, January 1987.
"The Political Economy of Segregation: The Case of Segregated Street Cars," Journal of Economic History, December 1986. (lead article)
"The Economic Thought of George Orwell," AEA papers and proceedings, May 1985.
"Southern Labor Law in the Jim Crow Era: Exploitive or Competitive?" University of Chicago Law Review, fall 1984.
"Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, November 1982.
(Reprinted in Analytical Urban Economics, in the “Modern Classics in Regional Science” series, Richardson, pub. By Edward Elgar, Ltd.)
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOOKS:
“Why Unilateral Divorce Has No Place in a Free Society,” in The Meaning of Marriage: family, state, market and morals, Robert P. George and Jean Bethke Elshtain, eds. (Dallas, TX: Spence Publishing, 2005), pp. 74-99.
“Rationality Means Being Willing to Say You’re Sorry,” in Personal Identity, Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr. and Jeffrey Paul, eds. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 204-225.
“A Conversion Story,” in In Real Life, Karl Zinstmeister, with Karina Rollins, (Carlsbad, CA: New Beginnings Press, 2005), pp. 17-20.
“Comment on Giving and Human Excellence,” in Conversations on Philanthropy, Lenore T. Ealy, ed. (Alexandria, VA: Donors Trust, 2005), pp. 15-18.
“Por Que La Familia Laissez-Faire No Funciona,” in Conciliar trabajo y familia: un reto para el silo XXI,
Domenec Mele Carne, ed. (Pamplona, Spain: EUNSA Press, 2004), pp. 55-72.
“Making Room in the Inn: Why we Need the Needy,” In Wealth, Poverty and Human Destiny, Doug Bandow and David Schindler, editors, (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2003), pp. 179-212.
“Competing visions of the Child, the Family and the School,” in Education in the Twenty-First Century, Edward Lazear, ed., (Stanford, CA: Hoover Press, 2002).
"Religion y economia: la ciencia triste descubre el amor," (English title, " Religion and Economics: The Dismal Science Discovers Love," ) in Economia y Religion, ed. Luis Ravina, (Pamplona, Espana: Ediciones Univerisdad de Navarra: 2000) pp. 69-96.
“Truth and Freedom in Economic Science,” in Centesimus Annus: Assessment and Perspectives for the Future of Catholic Social Doctrine, (with an Introduction by Archbishop Francois-Xavier Nguyen van Thuan), ed. John-Peter Pham, (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1998).
“No Families, No Freedom: Human Flourishing in a Free Society,” in Human Flourishing, ed., Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, and Jeffrey Paul, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
“Who is Rational Economic Man?,” in Self-Interest, ed., Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, and Jeffrey Paul, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
"Economics & Motherhood," in The Traditional Family in Peril, ed., Susan Roylance. (South Jordan, Utah: United Families, 1995).
"Moral Agnosticism as a Human Rights Problem: the Problem of Self-Deception," in Neither Victim nor Enemy: The Women’s Freedom Network Looks at Gender in America, ed., Rita Simon. (Lahnam, MD: University Press of America, 1995).
"The Anti-Federalist Tradition in the Nineteenth Century Democratic Party," in Anti-Federalism: The Legacy of George Mason, George Mason University Press, Josephine Pacheco, editor, 1992.
"Exchange, Sovereignty and Indian-Anglo Relations", in Property Rights and Indian Economics, Rowman and Littlefield, Terry L. Anderson, editor, 1992.
"Liberty, Prosperity and Virtue: The United States as a Commercial Republic," in, Liberty and the Constitution, Daniel J. Elazar, ed. (Philadelphia: Center for the Study of Federalism) 1988.
JENNIFER ROBACK MORSE
ACADEMIC BIOGRAPHY
Current as of May 2007
Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is a full-time consultant, speaker and author, devoted to supporting marriage at home, at work and in the public square. She is also the Senior Research Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. She is the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World, (2005) and Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn’t Work (2001).
Dr. Morse served as a Research Fellow for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution from 1997-2005. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester in 1980 and spent a postdoctoral year at the University of Chicago during 1979-80. She taught economics at Yale University and George Mason University for 15 years. She was John M. Olin visiting scholar at the Cornell Law School in fall 1993. She is a regular contributor to the National Review Online, The National Catholic Register, Town Hall, MercatorNet and To the Source.
In July 2006, Dr. Morse was one of the few Americans who lectured at the Fifth Annual Meeting of Families in Valencia Spain, sponsored by the Pontifical Council on the Family. Dr. Morse lectured in Rome in April 1997 and in January 2006 at Acton Institute conferences celebrating the Papal encyclical, Centesimus Annus. Her public policy articles have appeared in Forbes, Policy Review, The American Enterprise, Fortune, Reason, the Wall Street Journal, Vital Speeches, and Religion and Liberty.
Dr. Morse’s scholarly articles have appeared in the Journal of Political Economy, Economic Inquiry, the Journal of Economic History, Publius: the Journal of Federalism, the University of Chicago Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Social Philosophy and Policy, The Independent Review, and The Notre Dame Journal of Law Ethics and Public Policy.
She currently lives in Vista, CA. She and her husband are the parents of a birth child, an adopted child. From March 2003 to August 2006, Dr. Morse and her husband were foster parents for San Diego County. During that time, they cared for a total of eight foster children.