Neil Harold Buchanan is an American economist, legal scholar, and professor. He is currently a Professor of Law at University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville, Florida, specializing in tax policy and tax law.
Background
Education and personal life
Buchanan was born on April 20, 1959, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States. He received his A.B. in Economics from Vassar College in 1981. He then received his PhD in Economics and his A.M. in Economics from Harvard, where he also spent time teaching undergraduate courses and working at think-tanks.
After starting his career as an economics professor, Buchanan changed directions and received his J.D. from University of Michigan's Law School in 2002. Then in 2017, he received his second Ph.D. in Laws with a specialization in public policy from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)
Vassar College, A.B. in Economics
Harvard University, A.M. in Economics, Ph.D. in Economics
University of Michigan Law School, J.D. Monash University, Ph.D. in Laws
Judicial clerkship
From 2002 to 2003, Buchanan was a judicial clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in the chambers of Judge Robert H. Henry in Oklahoma City.
Academic Expertise - Economics & Legal Scholarship
Buchanan's research focuses on the long-term tax and spending patterns of the federal government. Buchanan and his co-author, Michael C. Dorf of Cornell Law School, are leading academic experts on the U.S. debt ceiling, especially its constitutional implications. They are often cited, both individually and together, in notable publications.
Buchanan has also written extensively on the fiscal health and intergenerational implications of the U.S. Social Security system, the debt and the deficit, and other topics. His latest work, Social Security is Fair to All Generations: Demystifying the Trust Fund, Solvency, and the Promise to Younger Americans, was published by the Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy in 2018, refutes claims that the Social Security system unfairly transferred wealth from younger generations to Baby Boomers.
He has also become a frequent speaker abroad, having been invited as a guest lecturer and visiting scholar at universities and other educational organizations in Australia, Austria, Canada, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, England, New Zealand, Spain, and Sweden.
Buchanan has been a full-time faculty member in the Economics departments of Wellesley College, Goucher College, and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He has been a visiting or adjunct professor at the University of Utah, the University of California at Berkeley, Towson University, Bard College, and Barnard College. He served on the faculty at Rutgers University Law School, and was a visiting professor at New York University School of Law and a visiting scholar at Cornell Law School. Currently, Buchanan teaches at The University of Florida Levin College of Law, specializing in tax policy and tax law.