Portrait of Bryan Caplan
Right · Economist · Active today

Bryan Caplan

American economist

See how United States compares →

A George Mason economist and libertarian who champions open borders and argues in The Case Against Education that schooling mostly signals ability.

Bryan Caplan sits in the right-libertarian part of the Caucus economy and liberty compass: strongly free market and strongly libertarian. The clearest positions are strongly globalist on nation, strongly free market on economy and strongly libertarian on liberty and authority.

Read more about Bryan Caplan on Wikipedia →

Where Bryan Caplan sits on ten dimensions

Each scale runs from one pole to the other, and the dot shows the overall tendency of this person's record and public life. These are simplified estimates and open to debate.

💰EconomyStrongly free market
State-ledFree market
⚖️Liberty and authorityStrongly libertarian
LibertarianAuthoritarian
🎭CultureLeaning progressive
ProgressiveTraditional
🌍NationStrongly globalist
GlobalistNationalist
🌱EnvironmentLeaning growth-first
Growth-firstNature-first
🤖TechnologyLeaning tech-optimist
Tech-cautiousTech-optimist
🕊️War and peaceLeaning peace-first
Peace-firstStrength-first
🏛️InstitutionsLeaning anti-establishment
Anti-establishmentInstitutional
🙏ReligionLeaning secular
SecularReligious
🛡️InterventionismLeaning non-interventionist
Non-interventionistInterventionist

People most like Bryan Caplan

Gary Johnson Governor of New Mexico, 1995 to 200397%Johan Norberg Swedish author and historian of ideas97%Peter Diamandis American entrepreneur and futurist94%Voltaire French writer and philosopher, 1694 to 177893%Ludwig von Mises Austrian economist, 1881 to 197393%Vitalik Buterin Russian-Canadian co-founder of Ethereum93%Milton Friedman American economist, 1912 to 200692%Robert Nozick American philosopher, 1938 to 200292%

People furthest from Bryan Caplan

Mojtaba Khamenei Supreme Leader of Iran, 2026 to present1%Louis XIV King of France, 1643 to 17152%Ruhollah Khomeini Supreme Leader of Iran, 1979 to 19892%Vladimir Putin President of Russia, 2000 to present (with a term as prime minister)3%

Political views closest to Bryan Caplan

Techno-libertarianismBelieves that digital technology, encryption and open markets can shrink the state and…97%CypherpunkUses cryptography and open software to protect privacy and to weaken state and corporate…96%Anarcho-capitalismAbolishes the state in favor of private property, voluntary contracts and competing…95%Austrian schoolAn economic tradition that stresses individual choice, sound money and skepticism about…94%

Read more about Bryan Caplan

These links open book searches on Amazon. If you buy through them, Caucus earns a small commission at no extra cost to you. They have no influence on where anyone is placed on the map.

Biographies of Bryan CaplanBooks on techno-libertarianism

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Percentages show how close two profiles are across all ten dimensions. Including a person here is for study and comparison, not approval. Portrait: Werner Zagrebbi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; see all photo credits.