James Broughel

James Broughel grew up in Newton, Massachusetts and serves as a Senior Advisor in the Office for Fiscal and Regulatory Analysis at AFPI. He is an economist specializing in regulation, cost-benefit analysis, and the intersection of innovation and public policy. Broughel helped develop the State RegData index at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a tool designed to track and compare regulatory environments across U.S. states. He previously served as a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, where his work focused on how regulatory policy affects dynamic sectors like energy and artificial intelligence. Broughel has published in academic journals such as Regulation & Governance, Contemporary Economic Policy, and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy: Federalist Edition. His commentary has appeared in national media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. He is also a regular columnist for Forbes and author of the book “Regulation and Economic Growth: Applying Economic Theory to Public Policy.” Broughel received his Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University and was a 2024 Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he contributed to the State and Local Governance Initiative’s program on small business regulation. He lives in Maryland with his wife and two children.