Classic & Contemporary Controversies in Political Economy
McLane Teammates Reading Program – Fall 2015 Reading List
September 1, 2015 – Free Trade
1. Paul Krugman, “Is Free Trade Passe?”
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.1.2.131
2. Fredrich Bastiat, “Candlemakers’ Petition”
http://mises.org/library/candlemakers-petition
3. Ha-Joon Chang, “The Lexus and the olive tree revisited: Myths and facts about
globalization,” Chapter 1 from Bad Samaritans: The myth of free trade and the
secret history of Capitalism.
https://analepsis.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/ha-joon-chang-badsamaritans.pdf
September 8, 2015 – Prohibition
1. Mark Thornton, “The Origins of Prohibition,” Chapter 2 from The Economics
of Prohibition.
https://mises.org/system/tdf/Economics%20of%20Prohibition_2.pdf
2. Jeffrey Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel, “The Economic Case Against Drug
Prohibition” http://www.jstor.org/stable/2138396
3. James Q. Wilson, “Against the Legalization of Drugs”
http://www.caragillis.com/Pierce/Phil%2020%20/wilson.pdf
September 15, 2015 – Depressions
1. Steven Horwitz, “Herbert Hoover: Father of the New Deal”
http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/bp122.pdf
2. Robert Higgs, “Regime Uncertainty”
http://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_01_4_higgs.pdf
3. Paul Krugman, “The Return of Depression Economics”
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/1999-01-01/return-depressioneconomics
September 22, 2015 – The Economics of War
1. Robert Higgs, “Wartime Prosperity? A Reassessment of the US Economy in
the 1940s?” http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=138
2. Thomas Duncan and Christopher Coyne, “The Origins of the Permanent War
Economy” http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=955
3. Condoleeza Rice, “Rethinking the National Interest: American Realism for a
New World” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2008-0601/rethinking-national-interest
September 29, 2015 – Apartheid
1. Nelson Mandela, “I Am Prepared to Die”
http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=3430
2. William Hutt, “The South African Background” and “The Market is Colour
Blind,” Chapters 2 and 18 from The Economics of the Colour Bar.
https://mises.org/system/tdf/The%20Economics%20of%20the%20Colour
%20Bar_2.pdf
3. Peter Lewin, “William Hutt and the Economics of Apartheid”
http://www.utdallas.edu/~plewin/Hutt.pdf
October 6, 2015 – Urban Planning
1. Jane Jacobs, “Introduction,” Chapter 1 from The Death and Life of Great
American Cities. http://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-AmericanCities/dp/067974195X
2. Edward Glaeser, “Are Cities Dying?”
http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.12.2.139
October 13, 2015 – Poverty
1. Charles Murray, “Have the Poor been ‘Losing Ground’?”
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2151066.pdf
2. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, “Time Well Spent”
http://www.dallasfed.org/assets/documents/fed/annual/1999/ar97.pdf
3. Hoynes et al., “Poverty in America”
http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/089533006776526102
October 20, 2015 – Inequality
1. Thomas Piketty and Emmannuel Saez, “Inequality in the long run”
http://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/piketty-saezScience14.pdf
2. Deirdre McCloskey, “Measured, Unmeasured, Mismeasured, and Unjustified
Pessimism: A Review Essay of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First
Century”
http://www.deirdremccloskey.org/docs/pdf/PikettyReviewEssay.pdf
3. Phillip Magness and Robert Murphy, “Challenging the Empirical Contribution
of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century”
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2543012
October 27, 2015 – Sweatshops
1. Benjamin Powell, Chapters 1-3 from Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global
Economy. http://www.amazon.com/Out-Poverty-Sweatshops-CambridgeEconomics/dp/1107688930
2. John Miller, “Why Economists are Wrong about Sweatshops and the
Antisweatshop Movement”
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/05775132.2003.11034187
November 3, 2015 – Immigration
1. Michael Clemens, "Economics and Emigration: Trillion-Dollar Bills on the
Sidewalk?" http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.25.3.83
2. George Borjas, “Immigration and Globalization: A Review Essay”
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/gborjas/publications/journal/JEL2015.pdf
3. Clark et al., “Does Immigration Impact Institutions?”
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11127-015-0254-y
November 7, 2015 – Crony Capitalism*
1. Russell Sobel, “Testing Baumol: Institutional Quality and the Productivity of
Entrepreneurship”
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883902608000086
2. Russell Sobel, “Economic Freedom and Entrepreneurship,” Chapter 2 from
What America’s Decline in Economic Freedom Means for Entrepreneurship and
Prosperity http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraserca/Content/research-news/research/publications/what-americas-declinein-economic-freedom-means-for-entrepreneurship-and-prosperity.pdf
This meeting will be a joint meeting with the groups from Southern Methodist
University (SMU) and Baylor University and will take place at the SMU Cox School of
Business. Transportation, lodging and meals will be provided by the Free Market
Institute and the meetings hosts at SMU. More details will be shared at a later date.
*