Vernon L. Smith

Vernon Lomax Smith (born January 1, 1927) is an American economist who is currently a professor of economics and law at Chapman University. He was formerly the McLellan/Regent's Professor of Economics at the University of Arizona, a professor of economics and law at George Mason University, and a board member of the Mercatus Center. Along with Daniel Kahneman, Smith won the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to behavioral economics and his work in the field of experimental economics, which helped establish "laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms."

Smith is the founder and president of the International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics (IFREEE), a member of the Independent Institute's board of advisors, and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C. He was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 1987, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1995. In 2004, Smith was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Universidad Francisco Marroquín, where the Vernon Smith Center for Experimental Economics Research is named for him. He was also a founding board member of the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University. As of 2023, Smith also sits on the advisory board of the Madden Center for Value Creation at Florida Atlantic University.