Scholars

William Waller is currently Professor of Economics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (where he has taught since 1982). He is also currently the editor of the Journal of Economic Issues. He was William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Economics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He was the Helen Cam Visiting Fellow at Girton College, University of Cambridge 2017-2018. He received the Veblen-Commons Award from the Association for Evolutionary Economics in 2015. He received his B.S (1978) and M.A. (1979) in economics from Western Michigan University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of New Mexico (1984).  He is a trustee of the Association for Evolutionary Economics.  He is also the past president of the Association for Evolutionary Economics and the Association for Institutional Thought.  Additionally, he is a past trustee of the Association for Social Economics, a former member of the editorial board of the Journal of Economic Issues, and former member of the board of directors of the Association for Evolutionary Economics, where he served as acting Secretary-Treasurer. He has co-edited three books Alternatives to Economic Orthodoxy (M.E. Sharpe 1987), The Stratified State (M. E. Sharpe 1992) and Cultural Economics and Theory (Routledge 2010) His articles on institutionalist methodology, feminist economics, public policy, the economics of care, and the work of Thorstein Veblen have been published in the Journal of Economic Issues, History of Political Economy, Review of Social Economy, Forum for Social Economics, Rethinking Marxism, Review of Institutional Thought as well as a number of edited collections. He is active in the Association for Evolutionary Economics, the Association for Institutional Thought, the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy, the Association for Social Economics and the International Association for Feminist Economics.

Major publications include:

• William Waller & Mary V. Wrenn (2023) The COVID-19 Crisis as an Opportunity to (Further) Extend Neoliberalism into the Higher Learning, Journal of Economic Issues, 57:3, 814-828, DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2023.2237862
• Reconsidering Thorstein Veblen’s Use of Instincts.  The Anthem Companion to Thorstein Veblen, edited by Sidney Plotkin, (London: Anthem Press. 2017).
• Care and the Neoliberal Individual, with Mary Wrenn.  Journal of Economic Issues, 51 (2) June 2017: 495-502.
• Public Policy Adrift:  Veblen’s Blind Drift and Neoliberalism.  Forum for Social Economics, 46(3) 2017: 223-233.
• Policy in an Era of Unreason:  Remarks upon the Receipt of the Veblen-Commons Award.  Journal of Economic Issues, 48 (2) June 2015: 321-328.
• The Mythology of Debts and Deficits.  Journal of Economic Issues, 47 (2) June 2014: 461-468.
• The Pragmatic State.  In Alternative Theories of the State edited by Steven Pressman.  (St. Martin/MacMillian Press.  2006)
• The Political Economy of Laissez Faire.  Journal of Economics Issues, 40 (1) March 2006:59-74.
• Kicken 'em While They're Down:  Anti-consumer Bankruptcy Reform, Journal of Economic Issues, 35(4) December 2001:871-888.
• The Political Economy of Consumption and Desire (with Linda Robertson).  In Thorstein Veblen in the 21^st Century, edited by Doug Brown. (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, Ltd, 1999).
• The Place of Biological Science in Veblen's Economics, History of Political Economy, with Ann Jennings. 30(2) Summer 1998:189-217.
• Radical Institutionalism:  From Technological to Democratic Instrumentalism, with William Dugger. Review of Social Economy, 54(2) Summer 1996:169-189.
• Evolutionary Economics and Cultural Hermeneutics:  Veblen, Cultural Relativism, and Blind Drift, with Ann Jennings. Journal of Economic Issues, 28 (4) December 1994:997-1030.
• Economic Security and the State.  In The Stratified State:  Radical Institutionalist Theories of Participation and Duality, William Dugger and William Waller editors, (Armonk, New York:  M.E. Sharpe Inc., December 1992)
• Why Johnny (Ph.D., Economics) Can't Read:  A Rhetorical Analysis of Thorstein Veblen and a Response to Donald McCloskey's Rhetoric of Economics, with Linda Robertson. Journal of Economic Issues, 24(4) December 1990:1027-44.
• On the Possibility of a Feminist Economics:  The Convergence Institutional and Feminist Methodology, with Ann Jennings. Journal of Economic Issues, 24(2) June 1990:613-22. 
• The Impossibility of Fiscal Policy. Journal of Economic Issues, 23(4) December 1989:1047-58.
• The Concept of Habit in Economic Analysis.  Journal of Economic Issues, 22(1) March 1988:113-26.
• Ceremonial Encapsulation and Corporate Cultural Hegemony. Journal of Economic Issues, 21(1) March 1987:321-8.
• The Evolution of the Veblenian Dichotomy:  Veblen, Hamilton, Ayres, and Foster.  Journal of Economic Issues, 16(3) September 1982:757-72.

Current Projects:

1. Elgar Encyclopedia of Institutional and Evolutionary Economics. Editors, William Waller and Wolfram Elsner. Edward Elgar Publishers.
2. The Economics of Care: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Palgrave Macmillan.
3. Numerous articles and book chapters.