American Institute for Economic Research

Last updated
American Institute for
Economic Research
AbbreviationAIER
Formation1933;92 years ago (1933)
Founder Edward C. Harwood
Type 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank
04-2121305 [1]
PurposeFree market advocacy
Location
President
Samuel Gregg
Revenue$4,820,000 [1] (2023)
Expenses$9,250,000 [1] (2023)
Endowment $194,000,000 in assets [1] (2023)
Website aier.org

The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) is a classical liberal think tank located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. [2] [3] It was founded in 1933 by Edward C. Harwood, an economist and investment advisor, and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. [4] From January 2022 to April 2025 the organization's president was William P. Ruger, who resigned to serve as Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Mission Integration under president Donald Trump. [5] Ruger was succeeded by Samuel Gregg in 2025. [6]

Contents

AIER maintains a global network of local chapters called Harwood Salons (previously called the Bastiat Society). [7] [8]

History

Edward C. Harwood Edward C. Harwood.jpg
Edward C. Harwood

Col. Edward C. Harwood was a graduate of the United States Military Academy and served in the Army Corps of Engineers. In the 1920s, he began writing freelance magazine articles on economic issues. [9] With $200 (equivalent to $4,858in 2024) saved from selling his articles, Harwood founded AIER in 1933. [9] [4] According to The Berkshire Edge, this makes AIER the "oldest economic research institute in the United States". [10]

Edward Stringham was appointed President of the Institute in 2017; [11] he was preceded by Stephen Adams, [12] Will Ruger became president in 2022, [13] and then Samuel Gregg took over the position in 2025. [6]

In 2019, the Museum of American Finance loaned its entire library collection to AIER, to be hosted, catalogued and made available there. The initial loan period was for five years. [14]

Policy positions

AIER's stated mission is to "[educate] people on the value of personal freedom, free enterprise, property rights, limited government, and sound money." [15] They take positions on specific policies such as free trade, deregulation, and the defense of certain civil liberties. [16]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, AIER was accused of misinformation campaigns and criticized for promoting a herd immunity strategy of "focused protection". [17] [18]

AIER issued a statement in October 2020 called the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) which argued for a herd immunity strategy of "focused protection" to be put into effect before the general availability of COVID-19 vaccines. [18] [19] Several public health experts criticized the GBD. [18] [20] Anthony Fauci, then infectious disease expert appointed by the White House, called the GBD "total nonsense" and unscientific. [18] Tyler Cowen, a libertarian economist at George Mason University said that the GBD "strikes the wrong tone." [21] The declaration was also criticized by left-leaning, formerly libertarian-leaning, Niskanen Center [22] which now calls itself moderate. [23]

The declaration and its signatories, publicized by the Brownstone Institute, influenced some policies of U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. [24] [25] AIER paid for ads on Facebook during this period, running the following ad from Jeffrey Tucker:

This country needs a serious anti-lockdown movement, one that is not just political but cultural and intellectual, one that is deeply educated on history, philosophy, law, economics, and all sciences, and can rally around traditional American civic postulates concerning individual freedom and the limits of governments, and also around universal principles of human rights. [26]

The organization has published articles such as "Brazilians Should Keep Slashing Their Rainforest", which have been criticized as climate change denial. [27] [28] [29] The institution has also funded research on the comparative benefits that sweatshops supplying multinationals bring to the people working in them. [30] [31]

Programs and affiliations

2018 Sound Money Seminar Sound Money Conference 2018.jpg
2018 Sound Money Seminar

AIER maintains a global network of local chapters called Harwood Salons (previously called the Bastiat Society). [7] [8] It partners for events, initiatives, and other programming with the Atlas Network and other groups such as the Free to Choose Network, Young Voices, and several university centers across the country. [32] [33] [34]

Funding

AIER owns American Investment Services Inc., an investment advisory firm whose fund was valued at around $285 million in 2020 (equivalent to $346,272,984in 2024). [35] [36] [37] Over half of AIER's funding comes from its investments, but it also receives contributions and foundation grants. [26] [18] It has partnered with Emergent Order, a public relations company also funded by the Charles Koch Foundation. [36]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Suozzo, Andrea; Glassford, Alec; Ngu, Ash; Roberts, Brandon (2013-05-09). "American Institute For Economic Research Inc". Nonprofit Explorer. ProPublica. Retrieved 2025-07-27.
  2. ↑ Bellow, Heather (2020-10-22). "Draft town letter slams 'risky premise' of Great Barrington Declaration". The Berkshire Eagle . the institute's free-market, libertarian leanings
  3. ↑ D'Ambrosio, Amanda (October 20, 2020). "Who Are the Scientists Behind the Great Barrington Declaration?". MedPage Today . a libertarian, free-market think tank headquartered in western Massachusetts, known for its attacks on climate change
  4. 1 2 "Charity Navigator - Rating for American Institute for Economic Research". Charity Navigator. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  5. ↑ AIER Staff (14 December 2021). "AIER Welcomes Will Ruger". American Institute for Economic Research. Retrieved 17 May 2024. Hans Nichols, "Gabbard installs Iran dove to prepare Trump's intel briefing" Axios, April 11, 2025
  6. 1 2 "Samuel Gregg". AIER. 2024-07-12. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  7. 1 2 AIER (2021-06-11). "The Bastiat Society Program". AIER. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  8. 1 2 "Harwood Salons". AIER. 2024-08-28. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  9. 1 2 Harwood, Frederick C.; Murray (2008). The Golden Constant: American Institute for Economic Research: 75 Years of Free Thinking on the Free Market (1933-2008). American Institute for Economic Research: Charles. ISBN   9780913610626.
  10. ↑ Owens, Carole (3 September 2019). "Connections: The Huckleberry King of the Berkshires". The Berkshire Edge. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  11. ↑ "American Institute for Economic Research Names Next President". 18 November 2023.
  12. ↑ Haber, Gary (19 March 2015). "$5 million manufacturing tax credit proposed for Pennsylvania". The Mercury (Pennsylvania) . Retrieved 28 October 2023. The personal income tax rate is one factor a CEO would look at in deciding where to relocate, said Stephen Adams, president of the American Institute for Economic Research
  13. ↑ "AIER Welcomes Will Ruger". AIER. 14 December 2021.
  14. ↑ Sarah Poole (Fall 2019). "MoAF Loans Library Collection to the American Institute for Economic Research". Financial History Magazine (131). Museum of American Finance: 6. ISSN   1520-4723 . Retrieved 27 October 2023– via ProQuest.
  15. ↑ "AIER About". 2 September 2013. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
  16. ↑ "American Institute for Economic Research (AIER)". scientifyRESEARCH. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  17. ↑ McKie, Ruth E. (2022). "Obstruction, delay, and transnationalism: Examining the online climate change counter-movement" (PDF). Energy Research & Social Science . 84. doi:10.1016/j.erss.2021.102387. S2CID   244355931. Nevertheless, this subgroup maintains a presence in the network and promotes anti-science rhetoric, including nuclear conspiracies. Moreover, the technique of employing discredited scientific positions mirror anti-science and conspiratorial debates on the COVID19 pandemic. This includes the anti-lockdown and misinformation campaigns by the Kock funded libertarian American Institute for Economic Research (AIER). The Koch funded institute created the Great Barrington Declaration, similar to the OSIM's Petition Project, and includes climate sceptic authors Dr Jay Bhattacharya and Sunetra Gupta promoted by the counter-movement organisation the Heartland Institute. Overlaps between AIER and other think tanks in a network funded by Koch Industries show the ongoing relationship between fossil interests and the dissemination of scientific misinformation to protect a business as usual scenario even during the time of an international public health crisis on this international web platform.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 Mandavilli, Apoorva; Stolberg, Sheryl Gay (2020-10-23). "A Viral Theory Cited by Health Officials Draws Fire From Scientists". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  19. ↑ Sample, Ian (7 October 2020). "Why herd immunity strategy is regarded as fringe viewpoint". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 10 October 2020.
  20. ↑ "Critics Blast Controversial Declaration in Favor of Herd Immunity". Medscape. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  21. ↑ "A Dangerous Libertarian Strategy for Herd Immunity". Bloomberg.com. 2020-10-15. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  22. ↑ Coren, Michael J. (31 October 2018). "A libertarian think tank just gave up on libertarianism". Quartz. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  23. ↑ "The Center Can Hold: Public Policy for an Age of Extremes". Niskanen Center. 2018-12-18. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  24. ↑ Nattrass, Nicoli (2023-01-02). "Promoting conspiracy theory: From AIDS to COVID-19". Global Public Health . 18 (1) 2172199. doi: 10.1080/17441692.2023.2172199 . ISSN   1744-1692. PMID   36749932.
  25. ↑ Lupton, Deborah (2024). Risk. Key ideas (Third ed.). Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN   978-1-000-91178-7.
  26. 1 2 "American Institute for Economic Research". DeSmog. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  27. ↑ Krugman, Paul (2020-10-26). "Trump Tells Coronavirus, 'I Surrender'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-02-08. Well, it is, not surprisingly, linked to the Charles Koch Institute. And a perusal of its website reveals that until recently it devoted much of its time to climate denial, putting out articles with titles like "Brazilians Should Keep Slashing Their Rainforest." More recently, however, the institute's focus has shifted to Covid denial. Last month, for example, it published an article lauding Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, whose refusal to take action against the coronavirus has turned her state into what the article called "a fortress of liberty and hope protected from the grasps of overbearing politicians."
  28. ↑ Cowgill, Terry (13 October 2020). "'Great Barrington Declaration' and AIER feeling heat on both sides of the Atlantic". The Berkshire Edge. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  29. ↑ Sodha, Sonia (2020-10-11). "The anti-lockdown scientists' cause would be more persuasive if it weren't so half-baked" . Retrieved 2021-02-08. what are scientists doing fronting a campaign whose back office is run by a thinktank that flirts with climate change denial?
  30. ↑ Greenhalgh, Trish; McKee, Martin; Kelly-Irving, Michelle (18 October 2020). "The pursuit of herd immunity is a folly – so who's funding this bad science?". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  31. ↑ Powell, Benjamin; Skarbek, David (2006-06-01). "Sweatshops and third world living standards: Are the jobs worth the sweat?" . Journal of Labor Research. 27 (2): 263–274. doi:10.1007/s12122-006-1006-z. ISSN   1936-4768. S2CID   55642948.
  32. ↑ Greenhalgh, Trish; McKee, Martin; Kelly-Irving, Michelle (2020-10-18). "The pursuit of herd immunity is a folly – so who's funding this bad science?". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  33. ↑ Ahmed, Nafeez (2020-10-13). "Koch-Funded PR Agency Aided Great Barrington Declaration Sponsor". Byline Times . Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  34. ↑ "AIER Events" . Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  35. ↑ "American Investment Services: AIS - Disciplined, Diversified, Cost Effective". American Investment Services, Inc. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  36. 1 2 Nafeez Ahmed (2020-10-09). "Climate Science Denial Network Behind Great Barrington Declaration". Byline Times . Retrieved 2020-10-11.
  37. ↑ American Investment Services (2020-10-29). "13F-HR".
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