Bridwell Institute Advanced Reading Groups
While I do not teach formal coursework at SMU, during the semester I run a ten week undergraduate reading group on the topic of my choice. Below are summaries and reading lists from previous semesters. I would make changes to each of these reading lists if I were to run the topic again, but overall, all of them have been successes.
SPRING 2022. Capitalism and Comparative Economics. While there were few consistent readings across weeks, topics consisted of regulation, free trade, sound money, property rights, the size of government, state capacity, democracy, and legal origins. For three extended nights in the course of the semester, students watched the three episodes of the Commanding Heights documentary series.
WINTER 2021/22. Winter Reading Group II. Seven students reading Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck by Eliezer Yudkowsky. Each of the seven then read one of ten pre-selected works on economic growth, progress, and technology and presented on them in the context of Inadequate Equilibria at the beginning of the semester.
Fall 2021. Adventures and Misadventures in Science and Data Analytics. Students read and discussed The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef, The Hot Hand by Ben Cohen, Science Fictions by Stuart Ritchie, and The Data Detective by Tim Harford.
SUMMER 2021. Summer Reading Group II. Six students read Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance by Douglass North.. Each of the six then read one of ten pre-selected works on institutional economics and presented on them in the context of North's thought for discussion at the beginning of the semester.
SPRING 2021. Civil Liberties. Students read and discussed The Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko and Open Borders by Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith, as well as selections from Persecution and Toleration by Noel Johnson and Mark Koyama, The Anatomy of Racial Inequality by Glenn Loury, FIRE's Guide to Free Speech on Campus by Greg Lukianoff and William Creely, Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies by Kristian Niemietz, and The Pox of Liberty by Werner Troesken.
WINTER 2020/21. Winter Reading Group I. Eight students read Stubborn Attachments by Tyler Cowen. Each of the eight then read one of ten pre-selected works on Progress Studies and presented on them in the context of Stubborn Attachments for discussion at the end of winter break.
FALL 2020. History and Political Economy of Food. Students read and discuss works such as Cuisine and Empire by Rachel Laudan, Three Squares by Abigail Caroll, An Economist Gets Lunch by Tyler Cowen, Agricultural and Food Controversies by F. Bailey Norwood and his co-authors, and Just Food by Jason McWilliams.
SUMMER 2020. Summer Reading Group I. Eight students read The Narrow Corridor by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. Each of the eight then read one of ten pre-selected works on Development Economics and presented on them in contrast to Acemoglu and Robinson for discussion at the end of the summer.
SPRING 2020. Ecological Irrationality, Public and Private. Following the release of my own book, Markets against Modernity, we cover both it and what I view as its forerunner, Bryan Caplan's The Myth of the Rational Voter.
FALL 2019. How to be a YIMBY. We cover the most important public policy issue of the day, focusing on Ed Glaeser's The Triumph of the City.
SPRING 2019: History of Economic Thought. A dwindling number of institutions offer formal coursework in this topic, and it was my goal to allow students to be conversant in the major topics and historical schools of economic thought.
FALL 2018: A Modern History of Libertarianism. We read Brian Doherty's Radicals for Capitalism while critically assessing the merits of various thinkers in this movement during the twentieth century. Doherty focuses primarily on the lives and works of Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayek, and Ludwig von Mises.
SPRING 2018: Numeracy. We covered various topics in quantitative analysis that are typically under-covered in undergraduate coursework, with many readings from The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver and Superforecasting by Tetlock and Gardner. We compared these paradigms with what is presented as more conventional social scientific methodology, and confronted The Replication Crisis.
FALL 2017: Rational Choice in Law and Politics. Students were introduced to the rational choice paradigm, followed by its applications to the legal system (Law & Economics) and political science (Public Choice). The readings were punctuated by challenging students as to how far the paradigm can be taken in either field.
SPRING 2017: A Brief History of Civilization. Students were presented with competing explanations of the flowering of economic growth over the last two centuries, especially the explanations of human capital and institutions. We discussed the barriers various countries still face in reaching modern levels of economic growth, and which causes of economic growth are the most fundamental explanation.
FALL 2016: Political Psychology. Students explored the psychological origins of moral sentiments and systematic differences in opinions in politics, and their implications for our discourse among those with whom we may disagree.
While I do not teach formal coursework at SMU, during the semester I run a ten week undergraduate reading group on the topic of my choice. Below are summaries and reading lists from previous semesters. I would make changes to each of these reading lists if I were to run the topic again, but overall, all of them have been successes.
SPRING 2022. Capitalism and Comparative Economics. While there were few consistent readings across weeks, topics consisted of regulation, free trade, sound money, property rights, the size of government, state capacity, democracy, and legal origins. For three extended nights in the course of the semester, students watched the three episodes of the Commanding Heights documentary series.
WINTER 2021/22. Winter Reading Group II. Seven students reading Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck by Eliezer Yudkowsky. Each of the seven then read one of ten pre-selected works on economic growth, progress, and technology and presented on them in the context of Inadequate Equilibria at the beginning of the semester.
Fall 2021. Adventures and Misadventures in Science and Data Analytics. Students read and discussed The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef, The Hot Hand by Ben Cohen, Science Fictions by Stuart Ritchie, and The Data Detective by Tim Harford.
SUMMER 2021. Summer Reading Group II. Six students read Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance by Douglass North.. Each of the six then read one of ten pre-selected works on institutional economics and presented on them in the context of North's thought for discussion at the beginning of the semester.
SPRING 2021. Civil Liberties. Students read and discussed The Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko and Open Borders by Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith, as well as selections from Persecution and Toleration by Noel Johnson and Mark Koyama, The Anatomy of Racial Inequality by Glenn Loury, FIRE's Guide to Free Speech on Campus by Greg Lukianoff and William Creely, Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies by Kristian Niemietz, and The Pox of Liberty by Werner Troesken.
WINTER 2020/21. Winter Reading Group I. Eight students read Stubborn Attachments by Tyler Cowen. Each of the eight then read one of ten pre-selected works on Progress Studies and presented on them in the context of Stubborn Attachments for discussion at the end of winter break.
FALL 2020. History and Political Economy of Food. Students read and discuss works such as Cuisine and Empire by Rachel Laudan, Three Squares by Abigail Caroll, An Economist Gets Lunch by Tyler Cowen, Agricultural and Food Controversies by F. Bailey Norwood and his co-authors, and Just Food by Jason McWilliams.
SUMMER 2020. Summer Reading Group I. Eight students read The Narrow Corridor by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. Each of the eight then read one of ten pre-selected works on Development Economics and presented on them in contrast to Acemoglu and Robinson for discussion at the end of the summer.
SPRING 2020. Ecological Irrationality, Public and Private. Following the release of my own book, Markets against Modernity, we cover both it and what I view as its forerunner, Bryan Caplan's The Myth of the Rational Voter.
FALL 2019. How to be a YIMBY. We cover the most important public policy issue of the day, focusing on Ed Glaeser's The Triumph of the City.
SPRING 2019: History of Economic Thought. A dwindling number of institutions offer formal coursework in this topic, and it was my goal to allow students to be conversant in the major topics and historical schools of economic thought.
FALL 2018: A Modern History of Libertarianism. We read Brian Doherty's Radicals for Capitalism while critically assessing the merits of various thinkers in this movement during the twentieth century. Doherty focuses primarily on the lives and works of Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayek, and Ludwig von Mises.
SPRING 2018: Numeracy. We covered various topics in quantitative analysis that are typically under-covered in undergraduate coursework, with many readings from The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver and Superforecasting by Tetlock and Gardner. We compared these paradigms with what is presented as more conventional social scientific methodology, and confronted The Replication Crisis.
FALL 2017: Rational Choice in Law and Politics. Students were introduced to the rational choice paradigm, followed by its applications to the legal system (Law & Economics) and political science (Public Choice). The readings were punctuated by challenging students as to how far the paradigm can be taken in either field.
SPRING 2017: A Brief History of Civilization. Students were presented with competing explanations of the flowering of economic growth over the last two centuries, especially the explanations of human capital and institutions. We discussed the barriers various countries still face in reaching modern levels of economic growth, and which causes of economic growth are the most fundamental explanation.
FALL 2016: Political Psychology. Students explored the psychological origins of moral sentiments and systematic differences in opinions in politics, and their implications for our discourse among those with whom we may disagree.
