International award-winning economist Robert Higgs will present the 2015 Benjamin A. Rogge Memorial Lecture—“The Growth of Government in the United States"—at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, in room 101 in Baxter Hall.
Higgs will also deliver a lunchtime presentation on “False Prosperity During World War II” at 12:10 p.m., Thursday, in Baxter 101.
Senior Fellow in Political Economy for the Independent Institute, Higgs is editor at large of the Institute’s quarterly journal, The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, and the University of Economics, Prague. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation.
He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Premio Juan de Mariana, Alexis de Tocqueville Award, Gary Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Defense of Liberty, Thomas Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties, Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty, Friedrich von Wieser Memorial Prize for Excellence in Economic Education, and Templeton Honor Rolls Award on Education in a Free Society.
Higgs is the editor of the Independent Institute books, Opposing the Crusader State, The Challenge of Liberty, Re-Thinking Green, Hazardous to Our Health?, and Arms, Politics, and the Economy, plus the volume Emergence of the Modern Political Economy.
He is also the author of Delusions of Power, Depression, War, and Cold War, Neither Liberty Nor Safety, Politická ekonomie strachu (The Political Economy of Fear, in Czech), Resurgence of the Warfare State, Against Leviathan, The Transformation of the American Economy 1865-1914, Competition and Coercion: Blacks in the American Economy, 1865-1914, and Crisis and Leviathan-Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government.
There will be a reception and book signing immediately following his evening lecture in Rogge Lounge in Baxter Hall. The annual talk honors the late Wabash College professor of economics, Benjamin Rogge. Both talks are free and open to the public.