Anthony Downs

Anthony Downs is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Downs has served as a consultant to many of the nation's largest corporations and public institutions, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the White House. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the National Commission on Urban Problems in 1967, and HUD Secretary Jack Kemp appointed him to the Advisory Commission on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing in 1989. He is officer or trustee of General Growth Properties and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He is the author or co-author of 24 books and over 500 articles. His most influential books are An Economic Theory of Democracy (1957) and Inside Bureaucracy (1967); widely translated, both are credited as major influences on the public choice school of political economy. Downs was also concerned him with housing policy, writing about rent control and housing affordability. The Revolution in Real Estate Finance (1985) predicted a long-term housing slowdown and decrease in housing prices. Most recently, Downs has involved himself with transportation economics. His book Stuck in Traffic (2nd edition, 2004) detailed the economic disadvantages of traffic congestion and proposed road pricing as the only effective means of alleviating it. His latest book is Real Estate and the Financial Crisis (2009). His wife is Darian Downs, a former political appointee to the Department of Commerce and the Department of Transportation. She has served as a consultant for Hughes Applied Information Systems, the Asian Forum in Japan, and the University of Maryland at College Park School of Education. Most recently, she was executive director of the Master Chorale of Washington. She is a member of the National Press Club and the Sulgrave Club of Washington, D.C. Downs has volunteered with the College Women's Association of Japan, the Tokyo American Club, the Foreign Correspondence Club, the International Ladies Benevolent Society, and the Reagan-Bush Campaign. In 2009 she was inducted as a Dame of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller.