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Third Summer Institute for  
the Preservation of the Study of the 
History of Economics in Economics                                        
 
Will the competence in the history of economics become lost to the 
discipline of economics? Extrapolating the trend gives an easy answer: the 
future serious history of economics will be conducted in literature 
departments. The private benefit/cost explanation is trivial: a history of 
economics thought dissertation is professional suicide in economics. The 
social consequence of giving monopoly power over the history of economics 
to those who actively dislike markets, and those who study markets, is 
described in the Levy-Peart “Secret history of the dismal science” at 
www.econlib.org. 
 
The Summer Institute will be an attempt to reverse this decline by offering 
a forum for students at George Mason, and elsewhere, to present a history 
of thought chapter in their dissertation to a competent audience. The 
thought is that a history of thought chapter can be disguised as a 
“literature review” without raising professional eye-brows. Simultaneously, 
the Summer Institute will offer a forum for professional discussion of 
on-going work for those who find current trends unpleasant.  
 
The deal. Thanks to a grant from the Earhart Foundation and pizza money 
from the Economic Department  we can make the following offer to graduate 
students interested in the history of economics. There will be six day-long 
 seminars during the summer where 3-4 papers are presented each day. 
Speakers include  Robert Leonard, Sandra Peart and Tyler Cowen. Several 
papers will confront the interconnection between model and 
anecdote/narration.  
 
Minimum participation. Attend as many seminars as possible. Benefit: copies 
of the papers, remarkable computer images, good discussion, pizza and 
Peet’s coffee / tea.  Median participation. For the minimum participation 
plus various scholarly tasks;  a $1000 grant. (Alternatively: present a 
dissertation chapter.)  Maximal participation. For the median participation 
plus presenting a dissertation chapter; a $1500 grant.   
 
Send applications to [log in to unmask] State your preferences for level 
participation, for type of coffee / tea and whether you hold with donuts or 
bagels in the morning.  
 
 
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