Conference highlights Austrian School, student research

Grove City College will provide a showcase for the Austrian School of economics at the 17th annual Austrian Student Scholars Conference Feb. 19 and 20.

The academic conference provides an opportunity for students to present papers, hear from leading scholars and discuss Austrian economics in the tradition of great intellectuals such as Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard and Hans Sennholz, a leader in the field who chaired Grove City College’s Economics department for nearly 40 years.

“The Austrian Student Scholars Conference is not only a capstone experience for students at GCC in research and writing. It is an entry way into their vocation as analysts of society,” Conference organizer Dr. Jeffrey M. Herbener, chair of the Department of Economics and Sociology, said.

Students from Grove City College, Michigan State University, Northeastern University and Oklahoma State University will present papers on various topics that will be judged by a panel of Grove City College faculty. Winners will receive cash prizes.

They will also hear from leading thinkers in a pair of keynote lectures.

Dr. Patrick Newman, Assistant Professor of Economics at Florida Southern College and a fellow with the Center for Free Enterprise Fellow, will present the Hans Sennholz Memorial Lecture at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19 in STEM Lecture Hall. Newman completed his economics Ph.D. at George Mason University and is an associate scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. His primary research interests include Austrian economics, monetary theory, and late 19th and early 20th century American economic history. His topic: “The Jacksonians Bank War: Liberty versus Power.”

Dr. Yuri N. Maltsev, professor of economics at Carthage College in Wisconsin, will deliver the Ludwig Von Mises Memorial Lecture at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 20 in Sticht Lecture Hall. Before defecting to the U.S. in 1989, he was a member of a senior economics team that worked on President Gorbachev’s reforms package of perestroika. Before settling in the Midwest, he was a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. He has authored and co-authored fifteen books and over a hundred articles. He is a recipient of the Luminary Award of the Free Market Foundation. His topic: “From Marx to Mises: My Life-Changing Experience with the Austrian School of Economics.” 

Grove City College students will present the following papers:

• “Racial Discrimination: Why We See It, or Why We Don’t” Elsie Becker
• “Why Does Demand for College Continue?” Dana Ross
• “German Hyperinflation” Zachary Urbytes
• “Hugo Grotius and the Dutch Golden Age,” Wesley Gaines
• “Economic Perspectives on the Benefits of State-Run Churches,” Phillip Lothe
• “The CARES Act: Caring about Effects, not Just Intentions,” Jared Kettinger
• “Sickening and Cyclical: COVID-19 and Its Impact on the Current Business Cycle” Michael Reese
• “The Manipulation of Economic Data for the Purpose of War,” Lillian Ford
•  “Entrepreneurship All the Way Down: A Theory of Property Rights” Tegan Truitt
• “A New Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: Analyzing the Impact of Entrepreneurial Institutions on Economic Development” Susannah Barnes
•  “Distortions in the Market for Privacy & Entrepreneurial Reactions,” Water Smith
• “The Big Tech Debate, Neo-Brandeisians, and Competition,” Luke Mason
• “Killing Them Softly: The Unintended Consequences of Minimum Wage Policy,” Jack Everett
• “The Unattended Consequences of Intellectual Property on the Film Streaming Industry,” Dawson Kiser
• “Protect or Neglect: A Refined Definition of Property and Property Rights” Kurtis Hingl

Herbener and Economics professors Dr. Shawn Ritenour and Dr. Caleb Fuller ’13 will lead discussions.

Austrian economics was first introduced to Grove City College in 1956 when Sennholz, a protégé of von Mises, became head of the economics department. The College became the world’s leading undergraduate institution for the study of Austrian economics and thousands of students were introduced to the Austrian school. The College has been the permanent home of Mises’ papers since 1978 and the 20,000-page archive has been the source of four books of his previously unpublished manuscripts.

For more about the conference, visit the website austrianstudentconference.com. For more about Economics at Grove City College, visit gcc.edu/econ.

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