Indiana University East’s School of Business and Economics will offer a new speaker series this fall.

Three experts – Steven Horwitz, P. J. Hill and Zachary Gochenour –  will visit campus and share their perspectives on topics ranging from being poor in America to property rights and a look at U.S. immigration about 100 years ago.

They have taught at various schools around the nation, including Ball State and James Madison universities and Wheaton College.

Programs are planned on the afternoons of September 28, October 10 and October 30.  All talks begin at 4 p.m. The series is free and open to the public.

“The speaker series will enable us to offer our students and the local community top-flight presentations from first-rate scholars on various topics of interest,” said Feler Bose, associate professor of Economics and Finance at IU East. “We were interested in speakers who can speak on relevant topics tied to what students might learn in the classroom, speakers who can talk from an economic perspective on topics that deal directly or indirectly with current issues, or topics where market-based solutions are offered to difficult problems. We also hope that the topics presented would stir a healthy conversation on campus.”

The series is sponsored by the Charles Koch Foundation and co-sponsored by Delta Mu Delta, the IU East Business and Economic Research Center and the IU East Center for Economic Education.

Steven Horwitz, John H. Schnatter Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise in the Department of Economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University

Steven Horwitz

Topic: “Inequality, Mobility, and Being Poor in America”
4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28
Whitewater Hall Room 132

“Inequality is a topic that is always in the news and discussed widely; however, the issue of mobility is generally not given much light of day,” Bose said. “However, both topics are linked and need to be studied together.”

Horwitz is the John H. Schnatter Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise in the Department of Economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. He is also an Affiliated Senior Scholar at the Mercatus Center in Arlington, Va., and a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute of Canada.

He is the author of three books, including most recently Hayek’s Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions. He has written extensively on Hayek and Austrian economics, monetary theory and history, and American economic history, and is a frequent guest on radio and cable TV programs.

P. J. Hill, Professor of Economics Emeritus at Wheaton College

P.J. Hill

Topic: “The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier”
4 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 10
Whitewater Hall Room 132

Bose said many believe the West was lawless because the state was weak, based on what they’ve seen in movies. However, he notes there was much cooperation in the Wild West.

Hill is Professor of Economics Emeritus at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill., and a Senior Fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, where he currently resides.

He is the co-author, with Terry L. Anderson and Douglass North, of Growth and Welfare in the American Past. He and Anderson also wrote The Birth of a Transfer Society, and The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier. He has written numerous articles on the theory of property rights and institutional change and has edited six books on environmental economics. His undergraduate degree is from Montana State and his Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago.

Hill grew up on a cattle ranch in eastern Montana, which he operated with his family until 1992, when he sold the ranch and bought a smaller ranch in western Montana that he operated until 2012.

Zachary Gochenour, Lecturer of Economics at James Madison University

Zachary Gochenour

Topic: “Political Economic History of American Immigration from the Civil War to the Immigration Act of 1924”
4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30
Tom Raper 124

Changes in immigration policy have been among the most socially and economically significant changes in America’s past. Gochenour will explore the economic and political pressures contributing to the development of this policy in history and continuing to shape the discussion today. The talk will focus on the period between the end of the Civil War and the passing of the Immigration Act of 1924, which established strict quotas for immigration.

Bose notes that while Gochnour uses American history to analyze the issue of immigration, the topic is in the news regularly and is relevant for current policy debates.

The immigration talk complements IU East’s Diversity Committee plans for this semester.

Gochenour grew up in Virginia and earned his bachelor degrees in Economics and Mathematics from George Mason University. He was a systems engineer in Baltimore, Maryland, before earning his Ph.D. in Economics at George Mason. He worked at Western Carolina University and now is a lecturer of economics at James Madison University. His research interests are in political economy and economic history.

He lives with his wife and daughter in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

For more information on the speaker series, contact Feler Bose, associate professor of Economics and Finance at bosef@iu.edu; or Bob Mulligan, dean of the School of Business and Economics, at rfmullig@iu.edu.