State Farm $3M Gift Creates Wilson Chair at American Enterprise Institute

February 25, 2014

State Farm has donated $3 million to the conservative, pro-business think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C. to create a research chair in the name of the late political scientist and Harvard, UCLA and Pepperdine professor James Q. Wilson.

AEI Senior Fellow and Director of Economic Policy Studies Kevin A. Hassett will be the first scholar to hold the James Q. Wilson Chair in American Politics and Culture.

According to AEI President Arthur C. Brooks, the chair will support research dedicated to AEI’s founding principles of freedom, opportunity, and enterprise. For the 2014 year, the chair’s focus will be to build on Hassett’s research on the U.S. economy, tax and fiscal policy, and the federal budget.

Wilson, who died in 2012, was well-known for his groundbreaking studies of political behavior, organizations and regulation. He was also known for the “broken window” theory of crime control.

Wilson was a longtime AEI trustee and State Farm director.

“We are pleased to honor Professor Wilson’s legacy and enduring desire for freedom and excellence,” said State Farm Chairman and CEO Ed Rust.

Before joining AEI in 1997, Hassett was a senior economist on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System, an associate professor of economics and finance at Columbia Business School, and a policy consultant to the Department of the Treasury during the George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations. He served as an economic adviser for a number of presidential campaigns including George W. Bush (2004), Senator John McCain (2000 and 2008), and Mitt Romney (2012).