Rosolino Candela earned his Ph.D. in Economics at George Mason University and was a Ph.D. Fellow in the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He earned an M.A. in Economics in 2011 and an M.A. in International Political Economy and Development in 2010, both from Fordham University in the Bronx, NY, and a B.A. in History from St. John’s University in Queens, NY in 2007.
His broader research interests include Austrian Economics, Virginia Political Economy, and New Institutional Economics. His research focuses on topics surrounding the economics of property rights, particularly with respect to the political process of Italy’s unification during the 19th century and its unintended consequences for the security and enforcement of property rights in Sicily. Rosolino was a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, where he continued his dissertation work on the political economy of Italian unification under Professor Diego Gambetta.
During his time as a Ph.D. student at George Mason University, Rosolino has had the opportunity to co-author and publish academic papers in The Atlantic Economic Journal, The Review of Austrian Economics, Advances in Austrian Economics, Man and the Economy, Studies in Emergent Order, Social Philosophy & Policy and Journal of Institutional Economics, as well as other peer-reviewed journals and edited book volumes. He also published several popular publications in outlets such as The Boston Globe. He presented his research at several professional conferences held by the Public Choice Society, the Southern Economic Association, and the Association of Private Enterprise Education. In between graduation and his current position, Rosolino was a Visiting Professor of Economics at Universidad Franscisco Marroquin in Guatemala.
He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Political Theory and a Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Brown University. He looks forward to educating undergraduates in the economic way of thinking, not merely as an exercise of cleverness in explaining human behavior, but as a tool of analysis for understanding the economic forces at work in a free and prosperous society.
Rosolino credits his academic progress to the mentorship of the economics faculty at George Mason University, who have supported him enormously in his teaching and research interests. In particular, he has had the good fortune of having fantastic teachers prior to coming to George Mason who have cultivated and encouraged his exploration into the economic way of thinking, namely Professor Douglas Rasmussen of St. John’s University and Professor Benjamin Powell of Texas Tech University. He hopes to continue this tradition of academic scholarship and dedicated teaching from which he has benefited greatly.