Economics Guest Speakers

On Tuesday, March 5, at 7 p.m. in the Business and Aerospace Building's State Farm Room (BAS S102), Dennis Coates of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will speak on sports economics and public financing of sports stadiums. Dennis Coates will be hosted by the Department of Economics and Finance and the Economics Club.

On Wednesday, March 20, at 7 p.m. in the State Farm Room (BAS S102), Matthew Yglesias, an economics blogger and journalist for Slate.com, will speak about housing regulation, rent control, zoning laws, and his latest book, The Rent is Too Damn High. Matthew Yglesias will be co-hosted by the School of Journalism, the Distinguished Lecture Fund, and Economics Club.

On Monday, April 22, at 7 p.m. in the State Farm Room (BAS S102), Don Boudreaux of George Mason University (and cafehayek.com) will speak about the life and contributions of Nobel Prize winner and MTSU alumnus James M. Buchanan, who passed away January 9, 2013. Boudreaux will be hosted by the Department of Economics and Finance, the Economics Club, and the Honors College. The Honors College awards the James Buchanan Fellowship to 20 undergraduate applicants each year in his honor.  [See Boudreaux's tribute to Buchanan from the Wall Street Journal.]

All of these events are open to the public. Each lecture will be an hour long, with a 15-minute question-and-answer session afterward.

For information, contact Michael Hammock [Michael.Hammock@mtsu.edu].

Economics Speaker

The Department of Economics and Finance will host speaker and economist Douglas W. Allen on November 9, 2012, at 7 p.m. in COE 160 (College of Education building) on the MTSU campus.

Professor Allen will give a lecture titled "The Industrial Revolution: What Happened to Dueling, Aristocrats, Indentured Servants, and the Town Watch?" It will be about an hour long, with 15 minutes afterward for questions.

Douglas W. Allen is Burnaby Mountain Professor in the Department of Economics at Simon Fraser University.

For more information: 

• Mike Hammock
  Michael.Hammock@mtsu.edu
  615-494-8678

Pre-Election Economic Policy Discussion

The Department of Economics and Finance and the Economics Club presented a panel discussion of the policies of the presidential candidates. Five economists--Bill Ford, Karen Mulligan, Todd Gable, Bram Gallagher, and Mike Hammock--participated. Prior to the Q&A session, Bill Ford presented a summary of the macroeconomic situation.

Lecture: "How Economists Helped End the Draft"

The Department of Economics and Finance will host David R. Henderson on September 12, 2012, at 7 p.m. in the State Farm Room (BAS S102) on the MTSU campus.

Professor Henderson will give a lecture titled “How Economists Helped End the Draft.” It will be about an hour long, with 15 minutes afterward for questions.

David R. Henderson is an associate professor of economics at the Naval Postgraduate School and a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution who blogs at Econlog.

For more information: 

• Mike Hammock
  Michael.Hammock@mtsu.edu
  615-494-8678

Economics and the Environment

http://tinyurl.com/7p2xf2f   

MTSU assistant economics professor Michael Hammock discusses how incentives and greed affect the environment, as depicted in the movie "The Lorax." [Tennessean, March 1, 2012]

March Economics Speakers

The Department of Economics and Finance is hosting two guest speakers in March for presentations to undergraduate audiences.

• First up on March 14 is Frank Stephenson of Berry College, who writes on a variety of public choice and sports economics topics. Professor Stephenson will be giving a talk in the Davis Science Building, room 100, on the MTSU campus at 7 p.m. The lecture is titled "Want a Job? Get a License" and will be about occupational licensing, with some particular discussion of the 150-hour rule in accounting.
• On March 28, the MTSU Department of Economics and Finance will host economist David Figlio from Northwestern University. Figlio's recent work focuses on education reform, particularly vouchers, charter schools, and teacher assessment. He will be giving a talk in the Wiser-Patten Science Building, room 102, on the MTSU campus at 7 p.m. titled "The Pitfalls and Promise of Market-Based Education Reforms." 

Students are encouraged to attend. For more information, contact Michael Hammock (michael.hammock@mtsu.edu), Department of Economics and Finance.