Indiana University East’s School of Business and Economics will offer the Spring Speaker Series beginning February 12.

Discussions will begin at 4 p.m. and will be held in Tom Raper Hall, Room 124. The series is free and open to the public.

The spring series features three speakers, each focusing on a different economic topic. Speakers include Joshua C. Hall, Angela Dills and David R. Henderson.

Monday, February 12
Joshua C. Hall is an associate professor of economics and director of the Center for Free Enterprise in the College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University. He will present “Economic Freedom and Well Being: What is the Relationship?”.

Joshua Hall

He will discuss what is economic freedom, how it can be measured and why it is important to measure it. A large number of articles in economics, political science, and forestry consistently find that more economic freedom is associated with good outcomes: higher incomes, better health, and better environment. There are a few exceptions.

Hall earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Ohio University and his Ph.D. from West Virginia University in 2007. Prior to returning to his alma mater, he was the Elbert H. Neese, Jr. Professor of Economics at Beloit College. Hall is a past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education and is also a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute. He has authored over 100 articles in journals such as Public Choice, Contemporary Economic Policy, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Public Finance Review, Southern Economic Journal, and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.

Tuesday, March 20
Angela Dills is the Gimelstob-Landry Distinguished Professor of Regional Economic Development at Western Carolina University. She will present “Equal Pay for Equal Work?”. Women earn 80 cents for every dollar a typical man earns.

Angela Dills

Dills describes a variety of potential explanations and the empirical evidence for each. A detailed understanding of what’s behind the pay gap can help us close it.

Dills received a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Boston University. She previously held faculty positions at Clemson University, Mercer University, Wellesley College and Providence College. Specializing in the economics of education, crime, and health, her research focuses on policy issues such as school choice, accountability, peer effects, college quality, and alcohol and drug prohibition. This research has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Health Economics, Economic Inquiry, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and the Economics of Education Review. She lives in Franklin, North Carolina, with her economist-husband and three children.

Wednesday April 18
David R. Henderson is an emeritus professor of Economics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and a research fellow with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He will present “How Economists Helped End the Draft”.

David Henderson

From 1948 to the late 1960s, most Americans took for granted that military conscription was here to stay. And almost everyone thought that a partially drafted military was cheaper than an all-volunteer force. In the late 1960s, economists pointed out that the draft was actually more expensive. The story about how economists changed thinking on the draft and, in doing so, helped end it will be presented.

Henderson was previously a senior economist with President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers. Henderson is the editor of The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, author of The Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey and co-author of Making Great Decisions in Business and Life. He has written over 300 articles for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune, Los Angeles Times, Reason, and other publications. He has testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. He has appeared on C-SPAN, CNN, PBS, the John Stossel show, the O’Reilly Factor, MSNBC, NPR, CBC, RT, and the BBC. He was born and raised in Canada before coming to the United States in 1972 to get his Ph.D. at UCLA.

For more information on the speaker series, contact Feler Bose, associate professor of Economics and Finance, at bosef@iu.edu.