Grove City College will host the Austrian Student Scholars Conference, November 2-3, 2007. Open to undergraduates and graduate students in any academic discipline, the ASSC will bring together students from colleges and universities across the country to present their own research papers written in the tradition of the great Austrian School intellectuals such as Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard, and Hans Sennholz. Accepted papers will be presented in a regular conference format (see the schedule below) to an audience of students and faculty. Keynote lectures will be delivered by Drs. Mark Thornton and Thomas DiLorenzo.

Cash prizes of $1,000, $750, and $500 will be awarded for the top three papers, respectively, as judged by a select panel of Grove City College faculty. Hotel accommodations will be provided to all students who travel to the ASSC to present their papers. Limited stipends are available for travel expenses. Students should submit their proposals to present a paper to the director of the conference (jmherbener@gcc.edu) by October 1. To be eligible for the cash prizes, finished papers should be submitted to the director by October 15.

In 1956, J. Howard Pew hired Hans Sennholz, the young protégé of the Dean of Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises, to head the economics department at Grove City College. Under his direction, Grove City College became the world’s leading undergraduate institution for the study of Austrian economics. At commencement in 1957, GCC awarded an honorary doctorate degree to Mises.  Five years after Mises died in 1973, his widow, Margit von Mises, was asked by their friend, Hans Sennholz, to make GCC permanent home to his papers. Since 1978, the 20,000 page Mises Archive at GCC has already been the source of four books of his previously unpublished manuscripts.

[Back to top or Return to Economics Department]

Located 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the campus of Grove City College comprises over 150 beautifully landscaped acres, divided into two sections by Wolf Creek – Lower Campus and Upper Campus. Designed in the 1930s by the landscape architecture firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, the Upper Campus houses the spectacular Hall of Arts and Letters. Completed in 2003, HAL is a beautiful, state-of-the-art teaching facility and the site of the Austrian Student Scholars Conference.

[Back to top or Return to Economics Department]

Schedule

Friday, November 2, 2007

4:00-5:00 Registration. HAL Atrium.

5:30-6:30 Dinner. SU Great Room.

7:00-8:00 Hans Sennholz Memorial Lecture. Sticht Lecture Hall.

     “Predicting Booms and Busts”       Dr. Mark Thornton
                                                            Senior Fellow – Ludwig von Mises Institute

8:00-8:30 Coffee and Pastries. HAL Atrium.

8:30-10:00 Sessions

     ▪ Interventionism: Jeff Herbener. HAL 114.

            • “Education and the Free Market,” Jordan Benis (Grove City College)

            • “Legally Encouraging the Illegals: A Look at Minimum Wage Rates and Illegal

            Immigration,” Rebekah Newborn (Grove City College)

        • “The Pitfalls of Government Subsidies,” Tyler Phillips (Grove City College)

10:15-11:45 Sessions

     ▪ Philosophical Considerations: Jeff Herbener. HAL 114.

            • “The Foundations of Prosperity,” David Feister (Grove City College)

            • “An Ethical Justification of the Free Market,” Andrew Benson (Grove

             City College)

         • “Continuum in Economic: On the Significance of Realism of Assumptions in

             Economic Theory,” Juliusz Jablecki (Ludwig von Mises Institute, Poland)

     ▪ Comparative Economic Systems. Chairman: Shawn Ritenour. HAL 116.

            • “Agrarianism as an Economic System: A Study and Critique,” Anna Levenstein

                (Grove City College)

            • “Economics and Islam: Can Free Markets Work in the Muslim Context,”

             Abigail Johnson (Grove City College)

        • “Into the Dark Ages: Monetary Decline and the Fall of the Roman Empire,”

             Courtney Winther (Grove City College)

12:00-1:30 Lunch. SU Great Room.

1:45-3:15 Sessions

     ▪ Private Law. Chairman: Jeff Herbener. HAL 114.

        • “The Needle is Mightier than the Sword: Markets instead of Prohibition for

            Prison Tattoos,” Daniel D’Amico (George Mason University)

        • “Law of Rum-Runners: Self-Enforcement Mechanisms Given Weak Focal

            Points,” Nicholas Snow (San Jose State University)

        • “The Colonial Origins of the American Stock Exchange: Spontaneous

            Emergence and Self-Enforcement,” Nicholas Curott (George Mason

            University)

     ▪ Institutions and Markets. Chairman: Shawn Ritenour. HAL 116.

            • “Institutional Tension,” Diana Weinert (George Mason University)

        • “Central Planning in the Free Market: The Use of Economic Calculation and the

           Entrepreneur,” Stephen Albert (Grove City College)

        • “Uncertain Potentialities and Exchange as Evolution,” Michael Thomas (George

           Mason University)

3:30-5:00 Sessions

     ▪ Justice and Society. Chairman: Jeff Herbener. HAL 114.

            • “Removing the Beam: Social Democracy and Global Justice,” Adam Martin

           (George Mason University)

        • “The Growth of the Utopian Ideal: How It Stemmed from an Ideal to an

            Economic Reality,” David Hannibal (Grove City College)

        • “An Unchristian Dogma: Just War Theory and the Views of Tolbert Fanning,”

           Kyle Jackson (San Jose State University)

     ▪ How the Market Works. Chairman: Shawn Ritenour. HAL 116.

            • “Entrepreneurial Outlaw,” Michael York (Grove City College)

        • “Government Created Economies of Scale and Capital Specificity,” Benjamin

            Darrington (Yale University)

        • “Public Goods and Pro Sports,” David Gernhard (Grove City College)

5:30-6:30 Dinner. SU Great Room.

6:45-7:00 Awarding of the Richard E. Fox Prizes for Best Papers. Sticht Lecture Hall.

7:00-8:00 Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture. Sticht Lecture Hall.

    “Hamilton’s Curse”             Dr. Thomas DiLorenzo
                                  Professor of Economics – Loyola College in Maryland
                                  Senior Fellow – Ludwig von Mises Institute

page views since 5.10.04