Paul N. Courant (born January 5, 1948) is an American economist who is an expert in public goods.

Before attending graduate school, Courant served as a research assistant at the Brookings Institution.

Courant has authored half a dozen books and over seventy papers covering a broad range of topics in economics and public policy, including tax policy, local economic development, gender differences in pay, housing, radon and public health, relationships between economic growth and environmental policy, and university budgeting systems.

In November 2007, Courant started a blog in which he defended the University of Michigan's participation in the Google Books Library Project.

[5] His remarks joined an ongoing debate about the project, specifically with regard to the role of libraries in large scale digitization efforts.