William Luther, PhD

William Luther, PhD

Department of Economics, Kenyon College

William J. Luther joined the Department of Economics at Kenyon College in 2012. Originally from Ohio, he graduated summa cum laude from Capital University, earning a B.A. in economics. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D in economics at George Mason University. He is currently an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives and a fellow with the Atlas Network’s Sound Money Project.

Luther is primarily interested in questions of currency acceptance and the role governments play in determining commonly accepted media of exchange. Along these lines, he has written extensively on the monetary regime of Somalia following state collapse in 1991 and the cryptocurrency bitcoin. His work has received attention from many popular media outlets, including National Public Radio, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor, New Scientist, and VentureBeat.