Mark Koyama is Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and Mercatus Center, Senior Scholar. Professor Koyama earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Oxford. He previously lectured at the University of York and spent a year at the Political Theory Project at Brown University. He is interested in how historical institutions functioned and in the relationship between culture and economic performance. Recent work explores the emergence of religious freedom and the rule of law in Europe between 1500 and 1800.  He spent 2017-2018 on leave as a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution.