Instituto Juan de Mariana

The Instituto Juan de Mariana (or Juan de Mariana Institute in English) is an independent libertarian economics think tank founded in 2005 by Gabriel Calzada Alvarez, an associate professor of economics at King Juan Carlos University since 2004. Alvarez is also the organization's president. It is named after Spanish Jesuit priest Juan de Mariana, the most prominent thinker of the School of Salamanca.

Conferences

The Institute regularly organizes conferences on themes such as the origin of populism in Latin America and the "criminal" history of Communism.

Gabriel Calzada Alvarez

Gabriel Calzada Alvarez was born in 1973 in Las Palmas and studied under Jesus Huerta de Soto to obtain his PhD in economics. A member of the Austrian school, he is a fellow of the Centre for the New Europe and was a founding member of the Prague Network, organized by Vaclav Klaus. He uploaded a study AbOUT the economic effects of renewable energy onto the Internet in March 2009, which led to Jim Sensenbrenner inviting him to testify about how, according to Alvarez, investing in renewable energy would lead to net jobs losses before the United States Select Committee on Energy Independence. Calzada is also of the opinion that humans do not have the capacity to cause global warming.

Funding

The Institute's funding has come from, among other sources, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which gave them more than $100,000. Its website states that it is funded "by the aid received from individuals, foundations and private institutions that share its objectives."