Center for Free Enterprise

INCREASING PROSPERITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE

Our mission is to advance teaching, research, and outreach on the free enterprise system and how it relates to increased prosperity and quality of life in West Virginia and the world.

Faculty News:

Visiting Assistant Professor  Judge Glock has had his manuscript, "The Search for a Balanced Economy: The Origins of the Mortgage Market and Bank Bailouts, 1913-1939" accepted for publication in 2019 by Columbia University Press.

Economics Professor  Joshua Hall and his co-authors Serkan Karadas, Minh Tam T. Schlosky, both WVU Econ PhDs, had their paper, “Is There Moral Hazard in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative Debt Relief Process?” accepted for publication in the  Journal of Economic Development.

Visiting Assistant Professor  Judge Glock’s op-ed piece, " Why Protectionism Soaks AmericanConsumers Twice," was published in  The Washington Post.

Economics Associate Professor  Scott Schuh was extensively quoted in the article, “ HowAmericans use their credit cards differently across the US,” in  Business Insider.

CFE Director  Joshua Hall received the  Distinguished Scholar Award from  APEE 

Visiting Assistant Professor  Judge Glock had his paper, "The 'Riefler-Keynes Doctrine' and Federal Reserve Policy in the Great Depression," accepted at  History of Political Economy.

Economics Associate Professor  Jane Ruseski and her co-authors, Benedum Professor  Brad Humphreys and WVU Economics Ph.D.  Adam Hoffer, had their paper, “State Cigarette Taxes and Health Expenditures: Evidence from Dynamic Spatial Lag Panel Models,” accepted by  Papers in Regional Science.

Economics Associate Professor  Bryan McCannon had his paper, “Minimum Quality Standards and Entrepreneurial Innovation,” accepted at  Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy.

Economics Associate Professor  Joshua Hall and WVU Economics Ph.D. candidate  Sriparna Ghoshhad their paper, “The Political Economy of Soda Taxes” accepted for publication in the  Economics Bulletin.

Economics Assistant Professor  Bryan McCannon had his paper, “Arbitration in Classical Athens,” accepted for publication by  Constitutional Political Economy.

Economics Assistant Professor  Bryan McCannon invited book chapter, “Prosecutors and Plea Bargains” has been accepted into an edited volume of  Systems of Pleas to be published by Oxford University Press.

Economics Assistant Professor  Dan Grossman, Benedum Professor  Brad Humphreys and Associate Professor  Jane Ruseski had their paper “Out of the Outhouse: The Impact of Place-Based Policies on Dwelling Characteristics in Appalachia” accepted for publication by the  Journal of Regional Science.

BB&T Chaired Professor  Roger Congleton had three of his papers accepted for publication last month. “On the Codetermination of Tax-Financed Medical R&D and Healthcare Expenditures: Models and Evidence” with A. Batinti will appear in the European Journal of Political Economy. Both his “Intellectual Foundations of Public Choice, the Forest from the Trees” and “On the Emergence of a Classic Work: A Short History of the Impact of Gordon Tullock's Welfare Costs of Tariffs, Monopolies, and Theft” will be published by  Public Choice.

Economics Associate Professor  Joshua Hall with Donald Lacombe and Timothy Shaughnessy had their paper “Economic Freedom and Income Levels across U.S. States: A Spatial Panel Data Analysis” accepted by  Contemporary Economic Policy.

BB&T Distinguished Chair of Free Market Thought  Roger Congleton’s book chapter “Buchanan on Ethics and Self-Interest in Politics: A Contradiction or Reconciliation?” has been accepted for publication in:  Buchanan’s Tensions: Reexamining the Political Economy and Philosophy of James M. Buchanan, eds. Peter J. Boettke and Solomon Stein.

Economics Benedum Professor  Brad Humphreys and Economics Ph.D. student  Hyun Hyunwoonghad their paper “Professional Sporting Events and Traffic: Evidence from US Cities” accepted for publication by the  Journal of Regional Science.

Economics Visiting Assistant Professor  Judge Glock’s paper “Unpacking the Supreme Court: Judicial Retirement Salaries and the Road to the 1937 Court Battle” accepted by the  Journal of American History.

Economics Ph.D. student  Zachary Rodriguez and Economics Assistant Professor  Bryan McCannon had their paper “The Impact of Microfinance on Pro-Social Behaviors: Experimental Evidence of Public Good Contributions in Uganda” accepted for publication in the  Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics.

Associate Professor of Economics  Joshua Hall’s paper “The Political Economy of Local Fracking Bans” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Economics and Finance.

Economics Ph.D. student  Joylynn Pruitt and Economics Assistant Professor  Bryan McCannon had their paper “Taking on the Boss: Informative Contests in Prosecutor Elections" accepted for publication in the  Journal of Public Economic Theory.

Associate Professor  Jane Ruseski and Benedum Professor  Brad Humphreys have had their paper, “Strategic Interaction in a Repeated Game: Evidence from NCAA Football Recruiting Review of Industrial Organization,” accepted by the  Review of Industrial Organization.

Associate Professors  Joshua Hall and  Feng Yao and WVU Economics Ph.D.  Fan Zhang had their paper, “Does Economic Freedom Affect the Production Frontier? A Semiparametric Approach with Panel Data,” accepted by  Economic Inquiry. 

Associate Professors  Joshua Hall and  Jane Ruseski and Benedum Professor  Brad Humphreyshad their paper, "Economic Freedom and Exercise: Evidence from State Outcomes," accepted for publication by the  Southern Economic Journal.

Associate professor  Josh Hall (w/ James Gwartney & Robert Lawson) just published the  Economic Freedom of the World: 2017 Annual Report. Vancouver: Fraser Institute.

Associate professor  Josh Hall (w/ Fan Zhang & Feng Yao) had a paper, “The Relative Value of AEA Economic Education Papers,” accepted by the journal of  Economic Inquiry.

Associate professor  Josh Hall (w/ Antonios Koumpias) had a paper, “Growth and Variability of School District Income Tax Revenues: Is Tax Base Diversification a Good Idea for School Financing,” accepted by the journal of  Contemporary Economic Policy.

Associate professor  Josh Hall (w/ Jennifer Mangano) had a paper, “Exitability and Economic Freedom: Evidence from the US,” accepted by the journal of  International Advances in Economic Research. 

Professor  Brad Humphreys was quoted extensively in a September 15, 2017 CBC Sports article,  “Calgary isn’t falling for the old new-arena trick.”

Assistant Professors  Bryan McCannon and  Greg DeAngelo had their paper, “Judicial Compensation and Performance,” accepted for publication in the  Supreme Court Economic Review.

Assistant Professor  Bryan McCannon had his paper, “Leadership and Motivation for Public Goods Contributions” accepted for publication in the  Scottish Journal of Political Economy.

Associate professor  Josh Hall had his paper, “The Relative Value of AEA Economic Education Papers,” accepted by the  Journal of Economics and Finance Education.

Assistant professors  Greg DeAngelo and  Adam Nowak and Imke Reimer of Northeastern University had their paper, “Examining Regulatory Capture: Evidence from the NHL,” cited and summarized in the August 4th issue of the  Boston Globe . Their paper was published in  Contemporary Economic Policy last month.

Assistant professors  Greg DeAngelo and  Bryan McCannon were awarded a research grant of $30,000 from the Koch foundation to support their research on prosecutorial misconduct.

Assistant professor  Bryan McCannon’s paper, “Social Norms and Cooperation,” has been accepted by the  International Journal of Economic Theory.

Assistant professor  Bryan McCannon’s paper “Contracts and Trust: Substitutes or Complements?” has been accepted by the  Journal of Institutional Economics.

Assistant professor  Adam Nowak and professor  Brad Humphreys’s paper, “Professional Sports Facilities, Teams and Property Values: Evidence from NBA Team Departures,” has been accepted by  Regional Science and Urban Economics

Associate Professor  Joshua Hall’s paper with WVU Economics Ph.Ds, Serkan Karadas, and Mihn Tam T. Schlosky, “Abnormal Returns from Joining U.S. Congress? Evidence from New Members” has been accepted by the  Journal of Financial Economic Policy.

Assistant professor  Greg DeAngelo and professor  Brad Humphreys’s paper, “Are Public and Private Enforcement Complements or Substitutes? Evidence from High Frequency Data,” has been accepted by the  Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Visiting Assistant Professor  Judge Glock had his paper, "Netting Out Taxes and Transfers" accepted and published in  Tax Notes.

Visiting Assistant Professor  Judge Glock's paper, "The Rise and Fall of the First Government-Sponsored Enterprise: The Federal Land Banks, 1916–1932" was accepted and is published in the  Harvard Business School’s Business History Review.

Professor  Roger Congleton had his paper “The Electoral Politics and Evolution of Complex Healthcare Systems” with co-authors Alberto Batinti and Rinaldo Pietrantonio (now deceased), both former Visiting faculty here in Economics at WVU, accepted by  Kyklos. 

Associate Professor  Josh Hall has been named  Associate Editor of Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy. This is the journal of the Mid-Continent Regional Science Association.

Professor  Brad Humphreys has been awarded the prestigious 2016-2017 WVU Benedum Distinguished Scholar award in the Behavioral & Social Sciences category. He is the first B&E recipient since the 1989-1990 award year.

Assistant Professors,  Bryan McCannon and  Gregory DeAngelo, received a $64,000 grant from the Charles Koch Foundation to hold their 2nd annual Summer Empirical Workshop at WVU this July.

Student News:

Economics Ph.D. student  Kerianne Lawson had her paper "Using Currency Iconography to Measure Institutional Quality” accepted for publication at the  Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance.

Economics Ph.D. student  Joylynn Pruitt and Economics Associate Professor  Joshua Hall had their paper “Are State Governments Revenue Maximizers? Evidence from the Sales Tax” accepted for publication at  Economics Bulletin.

Economics Ph.D. student  Yang Zhou and Economics Associate Professor  Joshua Hall had their paper “The Impact of Marketization on Entrepreneurship in China: Recent Evidence” accepted for publication in the  American Journal of Entrepreneurship.

Yang Zhou had his paper, “"Checks and Balances" in the Socialist Regime: the Party Chief and Mayor Template,” accepted for presentation at next February’s conference in Budapest, Hungary, to celebrate the work of Janos Kornai. 

Amir Borges Ferreira Neto co-authored a paper with associate professor  Joshua Hall, “The Effect of Health Care Entrepreneurship on Local Health: The Case of MedExpress in Appalachia,” that has been accepted by the  Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy.

Amir Borges Ferreira Neto’s working paper, “Charity and Public Libraries: Does Government Funding Crowd-out Donations?” was covered in the June 2017 issue of  The Chronicle of Philanthropy in its article, “Government Aid for a Cause May Make Donors Give More.”

Danko Tarabar has had his paper, "Culture, Democracy, and Market Reforms: Evidence from Transition Countries" accepted by the  Journal of Comparative Economics. 

Josh Matti and  Yang Zhou have had their paper, “The Political Economy of Brexit: Explaining the Vote,” accepted by  Applied Economic Letters. 

Yang Zhou has had his paper, “Do ideology movements and legal intervention matter: A synthetic control analysis of the Chongqing Model,” accepted by the  European Journal of Political Economy.

Chris Yencha has accepted a tenure track position at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.

Danko Tarabar has accepted a tenure track position at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Amir Neto and his co-author Elham Erfanian, a Ph.D. student in Natural Resource Economics, were recipients of the Best Paper Award for graduate students at the recent Academy of Economy and Finance Conference in Charleston, SC. Their paper is “Scientific Output: Labor or Capital Intensive? An Analysis of Selected Countries.”