Pat Choate (/ʃoʊt/;[1] born April 27, 1941) is an American economist who is most known for being the 1996 Reform Party candidate for Vice President of the United States, the running-mate of Ross Perot.

He previously worked as Director of Research and Planning for the Oklahoma Industrial Development Commission; as Tennessee's first Commissioner of Economic and Community Development; as the Director of the Appalachian and then Southern Regional Offices of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA); as Director of the EDA Office of Economic Research; as the Senior Economist in the Office of Management and Budget's Trade Reorganization Project; as a Fellow at the Battelle Institute's Academy for Contemporary Problems and as Vice President of Public Policy at TRW, Inc.

In 1994, the University of Oklahoma named him the Arthur Barto Adams Alumni Fellow in recognition of his continuing scholarship.

He is known for his work on development economics, including infrastructure and intellectual property, and his strong stance against unfettered globalism.

1996 United States presidential election[4] He has authored and co-authored dozens of reports and several books, including: