----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Fourth Annual Summer Institute for the Preservation of the Study of 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 benefit/cost explanation is trivial: a history of economics thought dissertation is professional suicide in economics. And if a student were sufficiently perverse to take the risk, to whom would one talk? While the private benefit/cost calculation is easy, the social benefit/cost calculation needs to consider how disciplinary rational ignorance results in the wide-spread belief that our “dismal science” tag results from the inhumanity of past economists.(Think so? Look at www.econlib.org/library/Columns/LevyPeartdismal.html) The Summer Institute is an attempt to reverse this decline by offering a forum for students to present a history of thought chapter in their dissertation to a competent audience. A history of thought chapter can be disguised as a “literature review” without raising professional eyebrows. Simultaneously, the Summer Institute will offer a forum for discussion of on going work for those who find current trends unpleasant. The schedule. July 14-18 at George Mason University. Speakers include James Buchanan, Deirdre McCloskey, Sandra Peart, William Coleman and Ali Khan. Topics. We have papers planned for clusters of topics – I) right/left attacks on markets and economics, II) prudential behavior and proverbial wisdom, III) why unlike statistics, there is no code of ethics in econometrics and IV) the role of sympathy. The deal. Thanks to a grant from the Earhart Foundation and lunch money from the Economics Department we can make the following offer to graduate students interested in the history of economics. Participation. Attend all the seminars and participate in the discussions. Benefits: copies of the papers, good discussion, pizza and Peet’s coffee and $500. Give a paper. Benefits: good discussion, pizza, Peet’s and $750. Responses and questions? Drop me a note at [log in to unmask] I’m particularly interested in research which falls within one of the cluster of paper topics. David M Levy MSN 1D3 Buchanan Center George Mason University Fairfax VA 22030 Phone: 703-993-2319 Fax: 703-993-2323 ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]