Annual Report

2011 - 2012

INITIATIVE for PUBLIC CHOICE

& MARKET PROCESS

 

 

Table of Contents

Message from the Director…………………………………………………………….

Year at a Glance……………………………………………………………………………….

BB&T Free Market Process Speaker Series……………………………….

Philosophy and Political Economy Series………………………………….

The Year in Pictures– Centerfold………………………………………………..

Adam Smith Week………………………………………………………………………...

“Lunch with...” Series & Special Events……………………………………..

Student Resources and Development………………………………………..

Faculty Research and Development…………………………………………...

About Us………………………………………………………………………………………….

The College of Charleston Foundation is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization incorporated in 1970 under the laws of the State of South Carolina as an educational, charitable, eleemosynary foundation to promote educational, research, and other programs of the College of Charleston. Make a donation through the College of Charleston Foundation’s website. Designate your donation for "Other" and write "Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process" in the comments section after entering your credit card information.

The College of Charleston is a nationally recognized, public liberal arts and sciences university located in the heart of historic Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1770, the College is among the nation’s top universities for quality education, student life and affordability. The College offers a distinctive combination of a beautiful and historic campus, modern facilities and cutting-edge programs.

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The Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process would like to acknowledge the generous support of our sponsors and private donors who in part make our program possible.

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Message from the Director The Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process grew in scope and personnel in its fourth year. Professor Todd Nesbit from the economics and finance department was added as an associate director to help manage some of our student focused programs. Moving beyond the School of Business we created the Philosophy and Political Economy Series. Professor Jennifer Baker from the Philosophy Department became associate director to oversee this new series. Including faculty and students from the philosophy department is consistent with the view that political economy is an interdisciplinary subject. We continue to sponsor events with other areas around the college including Women and Genders Studies, Philosophy, English, and Pre-Law. The support from these groups helps us to attract a variety of students, and the wide variety of economic topics that we offer will allow us to continue to grow and expand our impact. I am thankful for the continued support of my colleagues in the Department of Economics and Finance, the School of Business, and within the business community.

The 2011-2012 academic year included over twenty events with over 1,100 total participants. The Initiative continues to have three main focuses: the BB&T Free Market Process Speaker Series, student development, and faculty development.

This year’s BB&T Free Market Process Speaker Series consisted of four prominent and exceptional speakers from academia and business, including the world renowned scholar Deirdre McCloskey. With greater awareness of our program, the turnout for our speakers continues to attract students, faculty and community members averaging well over 100 participants for each speaker.

Our new associate director Professor Nesbit administered this year’s informal speaker series: “Lunch with …” and our Economics Book Colloquium. The “Lunch with …” series consisted of 5 speakers that included journalists, academics, and business professionals. Students can ask questions and interact with the speakers one on one. These speakers discussed topics from Cuba’s economic policies, the economics of foreign aid, and the regulatory realities of the business world. Our Economics Book Colloquium, held every semester, had students reading books that examined the psychology of economic behavior, and the clash between John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek on macroeconomic theory.

Philosophy Professor Jennifer Baker heads our newest area, the Philosophy and Political Economy series, which allowed students from philosophy to explore the ideas of ethics and markets. The series featured two speakers, created the Philosophy and Political Economy Book Colloquium in the fall and spring, conducted faculty and student research opportunities, and executed our BB&T essay contest. Both colloquiums read Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness in the fall and met over the course of the semester to discuss the readings. The BB&T essay contest this year focused on ethics and markets addressing “The Ethical Limitations of the Market,” the winning essay was entitled “Can Friendship be Understood within the Market Process?”

The economics and philosophy faculty continue to mentor students in a variety of research oriented projects. Six students were awarded research fellowships working with faculty in the disciplines of economics, philosophy, and political science.

Our mission requires that we support our faculty who conduct research in the areas of public choice and the free market process. The impact of the Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process is growing; this summer we are funding four faculty members by providing them the necessary financial support to faculty from three disciplines: economics, political science and religion. Past recipients have meet with success with publications in Kyklos, Public Choice, Economic Affairs, and in edited volumes.

The major event for the Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process is our annual Adam Smith Week. This week allows us to partner with other organizations such as the political economy club, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), and the Tate Center for Entrepreneurship. This year’s Adam Smith Week consisted of nine events over 5 days and had nearly 400 participants, included Journalist and Blogger Will Wilkinson, and Economists Peter Klein and Art Carden. These events are attended by students, faculty and members of the Charleston community.

We continue to engage and create outreach opportunities with the business community through the Bastiat Society. Partnering with the Bastiat Society on a variety events helps to foster awareness of the importance of free market ideas beyond our students. We continue to thank our primary sponsors: BB&T Charitable Foundation, and the Charles Koch Foundation. This year we are also thankful to have individual private donors that offered their financial support to the Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process. Please review the pages of this report to see all the details of this year’s accomplishments.

The success of the Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process depends on the support of foundations and private individuals who share its commitment to advancing the understanding and appreciation of free minds and free markets. We are deeply grateful to all who support our venture. To learn more about the Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process please visit our web site http://sb.cofc.edu/pcmp or look us up on Facebook.

Peter Calcagno, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Economics

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2011-2012 Academic Year at a Glance

BB&T Free Market Process Speaker Series– 450 participants

• Dr. Lawrence White: Professor of Economics at George Mason University

• Dr. Deirdre McCloskey: Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English and Communications at the University

of Illinois at Chicago

• Mr. John Allison: Distinguished Professor of Practice at Wake Forest University and former CEO and Chairman of

BB&T

• Dr. Peter G. Klein: Associate Professor of Applied Social Science and Director of the McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial

Leadership at the University of Missouri

Student Development– 91 participants

• Economics Book Colloquium - Todd Nesbit

Fall: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein

Spring: Keynes and Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics by Nicholas Wapshott

• Philosophy and Political Economy Book Colloquium - Jennifer Baker Fall: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein Spring: Rationality in Economics: Constructivist and Ecological Form by Vernon Smith

• Traveling Reading Seminar to Coastal Carolina - Peter Calcagno

Dr. Calcagno and 4 students traveled to Coastal Carolina University to meet with students from Coastal Carolina University and Charleston Southern University to discuss readings of Mises and Hayek on Socialism, Knowledge, and Bureaucracy

• BB&T Essay Contest on Ethics and Markets For best student analysis of the Ethical Limitations of the Market

• Student Research Fellowships 6 Fellowships awarded for Fall, Spring, and Summer

• Student Information Sessions with visiting speakers and Economics faculty “Why Study Economics?” “Why be an Economics Major?”

• Distributed 76 copies of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand to interested Economics Majors and other School of Business students

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2011-2012 Academic Year at a Glance

Faculty 2012 Summer Research Grants - 4 Grants

• “Observing the Status Quo: Legislative Organization and a Century of Repeals”

Jordan Ragusa, Assistant Professor of Political Science

• “A History of the Marginal Trader Hypothesis”

Calvin Blackwell, Associate Professor of Economics

• “Why do Term Limits Increase Spending in the States?”

Peter Calcagno, Associate Professor of Economics

• “How Rational Choice Theory explains the Alternative Religious Economy in Asheville, NC”

Elijah Siegler, Associate Professor of Religious Studies

Other Events– 547 participants

• Adam Smith Week “Why Study Economics?” Will Wilkinson “Economic Liberty, Inequality, and Democracy” Will Wilkinson “Creating Wealth in Adam Smith’s World” Bruce Yandle “Should Government Provide a Social Safety Net?” discussion with Political Economy Club “Economics of Entrepreneurship” Peter Klein Roundtable Discussion on Entrepreneurship - SIFE, Peter Klein, and Russell Sobel “Why Not Capitalism?” Art Carden “The Power of Choice” Movie Night, Milton Friedman Biography “Why be an Economics Major?” student information session

• Lunch with...Series (4 events)

Humberto Barreto Andy Young Bruce Yandle Robert Parsons

• Author Roundtable: Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch The Declaration of Independents

• “No Harm, No Foul: Boeing and the National Labor Relations Act” Ellen Dannin

• “Boeing-The Full Story” Jim Gray

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BB&T Free Market Process Speaker Series

Invited speakers address the underlying principles and institutions of a market economy. This year we had four speakers address students, faculty, and members of the Charleston community. Over 400 students were reached through these presentations during the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 semesters.

Dr. Lawrence White

Fall 2011

Spring 2012

Dr. Deidre McCloskey

Dr. Peter G. Klein

Dr. Larry White was the first speaker in this year’s series. He is a professor of Economics at George Mason University. His talk was titled “Federal Reserve Policy and the Financial Crisis” was incredibly relevant and engaging.

Mr. John Allison is a Distinguished Professor of Practice and former Chairman and CEO of BB&T. We were thrilled to host him again at the College of Charleston. His lecture was entitled “The Practical Impact of the Federal Reserve on Decision Making in Large Financial Institutions.”

Dr. Deidre McCloskey visited College of Charleston in early March. She is a Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her talk entitled “Why (Non-Austrian) Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World” gave students an insight into her

recent book Bourgeois Dignity.

Dr. Peter Klein visited as part of the 4th Annual Adam Smith Week. Dr. Klein is the Director of the McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Missouri and he gave a talk titled “The Economics of Entrepreneurship”.

Mr. John Allison

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Philosophy and Political Economy Series

 

The newest series of the Initiative aims to engage students in discussion of some of the most crucial questions of our, or any time: what is the good of the market? How does general affluence come about? What are the crucial side constraints? What would a fair society look like? How do we encourage innovation? How do we maintain our virtue while remaining competitive in business?

The Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process has partnered with the College of Charleston’s Department of Philosophy and added Associate Professor of Philosophy Dr. Jennifer Baker as an Associate Director. She teaches courses on ethical and political theory and business ethics. Dr. Baker has coordinated the Philosophy and Political Economy Series and Book Club, as well as the BB&T Essay Contest.

Fall 2011 Spring 2012

 

Dr. Neera Badhwar was the inaugural speaker for our Philosophy and Political Economy Series. She is Professor Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma. Her lecture, titled “Friendship and Commercial Societies” argued that commerce enhances human connections.

Dr. Neera Badhwar Will Wilkinson Will Wilkinson was the second speaker in this new series. He spoke as part of Adam Smith Week. Wilkinson blogs about

American Politics for The Economist and

writes The Moral Sciences Club blog for Big

Think. His lecture was titled “Economic Liberty, Inequality and Democracy.”

Philosophy and Political Economy Book Colloquium

Fall 2011: 10 students met with Dr. Baker weekly to discuss, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health,

Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, examines human choices by looking into psychology and behavioral economics.

Spring 2012: 13 students met with Dr. Baker weekly to discuss the semester’s chosen text: Rationality

in Economics: Constructivist and Ecological Form by Vernon Smith. The book examines the element of human cooperation within the market and the resulting equilibriums.

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Below: Deirdre McCloskey speaks to students in the Business Center about Austrian economics

Left: Will Wilkinson speaks with Dr. Sobel before giving a lecture on “Economic Liberty, Inequality, and Democracy”

Right: Peter Klein combines topics of entrepreneurship with economics in a lecture during Adam Smith week

Above: John Allison converses with local business members after a lecture with the Bastiat Society

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Above: Traveling Reading Seminar: 4 College of Charleston students accompanied Dr. Calcagno to Coastal Carolina University where they discussed selected readings with students and faculty from other South Carolina universities.

Below: Will Wilkinson addresses the Occupy Wall Street movement

 

 

 

Above: John Allison, former CEO and chairman of BB&T addresses students and faculty in the Wells Fargo Auditorium

Left: Jim Gray outlines Boeing’s activities in Charleston over the past several years in his lecture: ”Boeing—the Full Story”

Right: Art Carden speaks on topics of capitalism and its benefit to society

Above: Students attend a lecture for the 4th annual Adam Smith Week

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Students listen to Dr. Neera Badhwar who spoke on “Friendship and Commercial Societies”

Below: Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie discuss their book The Declaration of Independents.

 

 

Adam Smith Week

Art Carden

Dr. Art Carden is an Assistant Professor of Economics and Business at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. He is also an adjunct fellow with the Oakland, California-based Independent Institute and a Senior Fellow with the Beacon Center of Tennessee. He regularly contributes to Forbes.com as well as Mises.org. During the 4th Annual Adam Smith Week

he gave a lecture on, “Why Not Capitalism?” to students and faculty.

 

The annual Adam Smith Week is a way for the Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process to create awareness and explore important topics in political economy. The weeklong event has a series of education opportunities for students, faculty, and the community to engage in the discussion of Adam Smith and his economic philosophies.

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“No Harm, No Foul: Boeing and the National Labor Relations Act.” - Ellen Dannin

Ellen Dannin is the Fannie Weiss Distinguished Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law at Penn State University

“Boeing - The Full Story” - Jim Gray Jim Gray is the owner of Jim Gray Consultants LLC. - a nation-wide Human Resources/Business Transition Consulting firm.

Dannin and Gray presented two differing views on the Boeing union topic.

Sponsored in part by the Pre-law and Advising Program 

Dr. Russell Sobel joined us in the spring of 2012 as a visiting scholar with the Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process. Originally from Charleston, Sobel co-taught the senior seminar for economics at the College of Charleston during Spring 2012. Dr. Sobel has authored or co-authored over 150 books and articles, including a nationally-best-selling college Principles of Economics textbook. He has received several prestigious awards such as the Georgescu Roegen Prize for the Best Article Published in the Southern Economic Journal 2009, and the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation 2008.

Visiting Scholar

Author Roundtable:

Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch 

Dr. Peter Calcagno interviewed Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch of the Reason Foundation

about their new book The Declaration of

Independents. Students and business community members participated in Q & A with the authors.

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Dr. Humberto Barreto

DePauw University

“Cuba: An Example of Central Planning

Failure”

Dr. Andy Young

West Virginia University

“Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth”

The “Lunch With…” series provides students the opportunity to engage with speakers in a small group setting.. Selected speakers give a brief presentation and then there is time for student questions and discussion.

Dr. Bruce Yandle

Clemson University

“Creating Wealth in Adam Smith’s World”

Mr. Robert Parsons

Mashburn Construction

“Regulations and Reality”

Lunch with… Series Additional Events

 

 

Student Resources and Development

The Initiative for Public Choice and Market Process seeks to promote the benefits of free markets and private enterprise to all of our students. The Economics and Finance Department faculty demonstrate the power of economic principles to our students in their business, political, and personal lives. They provide them with the analytical skills to use these tools throughout their lives and careers. The Initiative creates an understanding of the benefits that liberty and ethics have on society. Here are just a few of the ways in which we work with the students at The College of Charleston.

Ellen Saltmarsh

Ellen is a senior Economics and Business Administra-tion double major. She is a Schottland Scholar in the School of Business. In ad-dition to working with the Initiative, she works at Charleston Place Hotel and enjoys performing in and attending theater productions.

Sarah-Kate Magee

Sarah-Kate is a senior Economics and Arts Management double major. She is in the Honors College and was the 2011 Piccolo Spoleto Fellow. She runs an after-school program at The Community Center of St. Matthew’s, in addition to being a student intern at the Initiative.

Spring 2011– Spring 2012 Fall 2011– Spring 2012

Student Interns Beyond C of C

Charles Koch Institute

Koch Internship Program:

Trey McCutcheon, Spring ’12 Cameron Sorsby, Summer ’12

Institute for Humane Studies Summer Seminars

Jamie Johnson – Junior

Economics and Accounting Major

Sarah Flessas – Sophomore Economics Major

Michael Cornish – Junior Economics and Math Major

Foundation for Economic Education

Rebekah Trice - Sophomore

Political Science Major

Students for Liberty

Joseph Berger - Junior Economics and History Major

Campus Coordinator

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BB&T Essay Contest The Initiative awards a cash prize each year for the best student analysis that examines the underpinnings of public choice theory and capitalistic economics.

2011-2012 Academic Year Topic:

The Ethical Limitations of the Market

This Year’s Winners:

First Place $400 Stephen Koester, - Economics and Philosophy “Can Friendship be Understood within the Market Process?”

Second Place $300 Joseph Berger, - Economics and History “Respect in the Market”

Third Place $100 Natalia Le, - Philosophy “Fraternities and Sororities: A Win-Win Situation?”

Economics Book Colloquium

The Initiative holds two economic book colloquiums, one per semester, for interested students.

Fall 2011

15 students meet with Dr. Nesbit and to discuss

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and

Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. The book examines human choices by looking into psychology and behavioral economics.

Spring 2012

15 students met with Dr. Nesbit weekly to

discuss Keynes and Hayek: The Clash that Defined

Modern Economics by Nicholas Wapshott. The book presents the differing views of two historically significant economists and why their debate is still relevant today.

Student Research Fellows

Traveling Reading Seminar

“Hayek and Mises on Socialism, Knowledge, & Bureaucracy” 

The Readings: Individualism and Economic Order - F.A. Hayek Bureaucracy - Ludwig von Mises  College of Charleston economics majors, Jamie Johnson Tanner Pritchett, Stephen Chadbourne, and James Vonderlieth, accompanied Dr. Calcagno to Costal Carolina University the weekend of February 16th - 19th. They participated in discussions on the readings with students from surrounding South Carolina universities. The reading seminar is scheduled to rotate to the College of Charleston next year.  

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Andrew Conti - Economics

“Chinese IPO underpricing and underperformance” Working with: Professors Rachel Graefe-Anderson and Weishen Wang

Debra Ong - Political Science

“Green Political Economy: Sustainable Development in

Industrial and Energy Policy” Working with: Professor Hollis France

Javier Gomez Lavin - Philosophy

“Virtue and Economics” Working with: Professor Jennifer Baker

Allison Evans & Karissa O’Keife - Philosophy “Aristotle’s Economic Theory” Working with: Professor Jennifer Baker

Branden Abushanab - Psychology

“The Role of Bioethics in Clinicians’ Self-Reported Decision-

Making: How does Bioethics impact decision making in situ?” Working with: Professor Jennifer Baker

 

 

Faculty Research

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Dr. Jordan Ragusa

Assistant Professor of Political Science

"Observing the Status Quo: Legislative

Organization and a Century of

Repeals"

The Initiative provides summer research grants for faculty members to conduct summer research. Research topics focus on the power of free market economic principles in business, politics and philosophy.

Dr. Calvin Blackwell

Associate Professor of Economics

“A History of the Marginal Trader

Hypothesis”

This study will test competing theories of Congressional organization using an innovative dataset that records successful repeal efforts from 1877 to the present. Where other studies of this nature use indirect tests to discriminate between theories of Congressional organization, the repeals data are used to directly compare the locations of the status quo and alternative policies.

The Marginal Trader Hypothesis posits that a small group of well-informed traders can keep an asset’s market price equal to its fundamental value. In this research project we plan to examine the history of this idea, through the writings of Fama, Friedman and Keynes to the 19th and 18th centuries. Our hypothesis is that the Marginal Trader Hypothesis required extended experience with asset markets before it could develop, and that as a result it came out of several centuries of experience in securities markets.

Dr. Peter Calcagno

Associate Professor of Economics

“Why do Term Limits Increase

Spending in the States?”

The research examines by what mechanism could term limits increase spending? We propose to test for the mechanism between term limit and state government spending using a fixed effects model for state legislatures for the years 1975-2005. If the institutional arrangements that we create for these policymakers have economic consequences, we need to think through these institutional changes carefully to generate the desired outcome of limited government.

Dr. Elijah Seigler

Associate Professor of Religious Studies

"How Rational Choice Theory explains

the Alternative Religious Economy in

Asheville, N.C."

This research applies public choice theory to the alternative religious economy of Asheville, North Carolina. It aims to better understand what happens when Americans practicing alternative religions live together in a small Southern city and to empirically test a type of public choice theory known as rational choice theory of religion (RTCR).

 

 

About Us

• The role of government institutions in a capitalistic society

• The relationship between government and the individual

• The relationship between political and economic freedom

• The moral structure of a free market economy

To achieve our mission the Initiative sponsors the following:

• BB&T Free Market Process Speaker Series

• Student Development

• Faculty research in the areas of Public Choice and Market Process

Dr. Jennifer Baker Associate Director

Associate Professor

Department of Philosophy

Dr. Todd Nesbit Associate Director

Assistant Professor

Department of Economics

Dr. Peter Calcagno Founder and Director

Associate Professor

Department of Economics

The Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process advances the understanding of the economic, political and moral foundations of a free market economy. The Initiative supports the growth and development of teaching and research at the College of Charleston School of Business, while engaging students and the greater Charleston business community. What is Public Choice?

Economics traditionally focuses on the behavior of firms and consumers and how individuals interact in market settings. Public choice builds on economic and political theories to analyze the behavior of voters, candidates, legislators, bureaucrats, and the institutions under which they operate. Public choice uses modern economic tools to study problems that are traditionally in the sphere of political science. (A more general term is “political economy”, an earlier name for “economics”.) In particular, public choice models the behavior of voters, politicians, and government officials as (mostly) self interested agents and analyzes their interactions under a variety of institutional settings. Public choice analysis has roots in positive analysis ("what is") but is often used for normative purposes ("what ought to be"), to identify a problem or suggest how a system could be improved by changes in institutions.

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Founded in the Fall of 2008 with a generous gift from the BB&T Charitable Foundation and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the Initiative for Public Choice & Market Process is designed to examine and stimulate discussion of the following topics:

Mission Objectives

 

 

INITIATIVE for PUBLIC CHOICE & MARKET PROCESS

 Peter Calcagno, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Economics

Department of Economics and Finance

66 George Street

Charleston, SC 29424