Each semester the Center for Public Choice and Market Process (CPM) sponsors the Economics Book Colloquium, in which students and faculty meet to discuss interesting contemporary writing in economics.
Spring 2025
For the 2024-2025 academic year, we will taking a year-long deep dive into "Theory of Moral Sentiment" by Adam Smith. The discussion leader will be Dr. Briana McGinnis, assistant professor of Political Science. Meetings for the Spring are on the scheduled the Wednesdays listed below in Beatty 301 from 3:45pm-5:00pm.
January 29
pages 218-235
February 12
pages 235-264
February 26
pages 265-306
March 12
pages 307-327
April 2
pages 327-342
April 16
Virtual Meeting with Dr. James Otteson, Author of Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life
Books for Economics Students
Below are lists of previous Economics Book Colloquium selections and other books for students interested in learning more about economics.
The Property Species: Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind" by Bart J. Wilson
Why Parties? A Second Look by John H. Aldrich.
Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier by Edward Glaeser
The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress by Virginia Postrel
Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of U.S. Militarism by Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall
Socialism Sucks: Two Economist Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World by Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell
More from Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources―and What Happens Next by Andrew McAfee
How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom by Matt Ridley
The Essential Adam Smith by James Otteson; Humanomics: Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations for the Twenty-First Century by Veron L. Smith and Bart J. Wilson; The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World by Tim Harford
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando De Soto.
WTF?!: An Economic Tour of the Weird by Peter T. Leeson
Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy by Philippe Van Parijs and Yannick Vanderborght
Environmental Markets: A Property Rights Approach by Terry Anderson and Gary Libecap
Mainline Economics: Six Nobel Lectures in the Tradition of Adam Smith featuring F. A. Hayek, James M. Buchanan, Ronald H. Coase, Douglass C. North, Vernon L. Smith, and Elinor C. Ostrom
Various Articles and Chapters from Dr. Doug Walker, Dr. Robert Lawson, Dr. Todd Nesbit, and Dr. Jennifer Baker
Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity by William Baumol, Robert Litan, and Carl Schramm
White-collar government: The hidden role of class in economic policy making by Nicholas Carnes; Beyond Politics: The Roots of Government Failure by Randy Simmons
The Tyranny of Experts: Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor by William Easterly
Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers: The Economic Engine of Political Change by Wayne A. Leighton and Edward J. Lopez
In FED We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic by David Wessel
Why Most Things Fail by Paul Ormerod
The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly
Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
Keynes Hayek by Nicholas Wapshott
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations by David Warsh
The Invisible Hook by Peter Leeson; Uncommon Sense by Gary Becker and Richard Posner
A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell
The Economics of Public Issues by Roger LeRoy Miller, Daniel K. Benjamin, and Douglas C. North
