Past Provocative Lectures

2022

Spring 2022

The Voltage Effect How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale
March 9, 2022
John A. List, Ph.D

2021

Fall 2021

Ideology, Norms, and the Prospects for Democracy [pdf]

November 10, 2021
Erik O. Kimbrough, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Economics in the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy at Chapman University's Argyros School of Business and Economics

Spring 2021

The Property Species: Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind [pdf]

April 22, 2021
Bart Wilson
Professor, Donald P. Kennedy Chair in Economics and Law
Director, Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy

Why the Study of Economics Neglects Race, and What Can be Done About It? [pdf]

February 24, 2021
Gary Hoover, Ph.D.
Tulane University, Professor of Economics and Executive Director or Murphy Institute
YouTube Link

2020

Spring 2020

2020 Provocative Lectures were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Challenging Political Economy of Medicare-For-All [pdf]

March 18, 2020 - to be rescheduled
Roberta Q. Herzberg, Ph.D.
Distinguished Senior Fellow, F. A. Hayek Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics The Mercatus Center at George Mason University

What can we learn from Uber? Three Large Scale Field Experiments on Tipping, Apologies, and the Gender Pay Gap [pdf]

April 14, 2020 - to be rescheduled
John A. List, Ph.D.
Professor, University of Chicago

2019

Fall 2019

Bringing Fiscal Sanity to California Infrastructure Policy [pdf]

November 19, 2019, Tues.
Marc Joffe, MPA
Sr. Policy Analyst, Reason Foundation

Patents, Intellectual Property, and the Rise of the Rent-Seeking Society [pdf]

October 30, 2019, Wed.
Alex Tabarrok, Ph.D.
Professor, George Mason University

The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System [pdf]

September 18, 2019, Wed.
David Skarbek, Ph.D.

Spring 2019

Mixed-Economy Entrepreneurship: What is a Capitalist to Do? [pdf] 

April 23rd, 2019
Robert L. Bradley, Jr.

T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer [pdf]

March 18th, 2019  
Linda Royster Beito, Ph.D.
Professor, Stillman College. Ph.D. University of Alabama

The Cambodian Genocide and Communism [pdf]

February 19th, 2019  
Channy Chhi Laux

2018

Fall 2018

Who Watches the Prosecutors? [pdf]

November 8, 2018
Howard Root
Founder and CEO of Vascular Solutions, Inc.

Knowledge is Power [pdf]

October 10, 2018  
Adam Andrzejewski
CEO and Founder of Open the Books

Helping Low-Income Workers Get Ahead: A Market Solution [pdf]

September 27, 2018  
Safwan Shah, Ph.D.
CEO and Founder PayActive

Spring 2018

The Old Lady, the Fly and the Horse: an Outline for Economic Reform [pdf]

April 11, 2018
John Cochrane

Incarceration Nation - How America Became the World's Leading Jailer [pdf]

March 20, 2018
Clark Neily

Black Liberty Matters [pdf]

February 28, 2018
Jacob T. Levy


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