Education

2011 Bellarmine University, B.A.
2013 George Mason University, M.A.
2015 George Mason University, Ph.D.

Courses Taught

Principles of Microeconomics
Intermediate Microeconomics
Public Choice Economics
Special Topics: Defense and Peace Economics
Special Topics: The Economics of Repugnant Markets
Sustaining Business Policies and Practices Research

Career Specialties

Abigail Hall Blanco’s research focuses on issues related to defense, war, and peace. Her work includes analyses of terrorism and counterterrorism, the economics of propaganda and the impacts of foreign policy on domestic institutions. She has written on issues of domestic extremism, nuclear weapons and the development and deployment of new military technology. 

Professional and Community Activities

Hall Blanco has authored more than 40 academic articles and book chapters. She is the coauthor of four published books, How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite (2024, Independent Institute), The Political Economy of Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and the War on Terror (2023, Cambridge University Press), Manufacturing Militarism: U.S. Government Propaganda in the War on Terror (2021, Stanford University Press) and Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of U.S. Militarism (2018, Stanford University Press). 

She is very active with media. Her popular writings have been featured in outlets such as Forbes, USA Today, CNBC, Newsweek, Quartz, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller and US News and World Report. She has been featured on a number of television outlets including Fox Business, C-SPAN and PBS. 

Hall Blanco serves as the book review editor for the Review of Austrian Economics, and is a member of the editorial boards for the Eastern Economic Journal, the Review of Austrian Economics and Markets and Society. She is a Senior Fellow with Independent Institute, an Affiliated Scholar with the Mercatus Center, a Non-Resident Fellow with Defense Priorities  and a Public Choice and Public Policy Fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research. 

Honors and Awards

Young Voices Contributor of the Year Finalist, 2021

Society for the Development of Austrian Economics Best Book Award, 2020
For Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of US Militarism

Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY Award), 2019
For Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of US Militarism Bronze in the Current Events I (Political/Economics/Current Affairs) Category