Benjamin Powell
Executive Director
Benjamin Powell is the executive director of the Free Market Institute and a professor of economics in the Jerry S. Rawls College of Business Administration.
Bens research and teaching interests include the economics of immigration and the economics of sweatshop labor. His research contributes to scholarly literatures in Austrian economics, public choice, and institutional economics.
Ben is the author, editor, or co-editor of several books and he has authored more than 75 peer-reviewed scholarly articles and policy studies. His research findings have been reported in hundreds of popular press outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He also writes frequently for the popular press. His popular writing has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, New York Post, The Dallas Morning News and many other outlets. He has appeared on numerous radio, podcast, and television programs on networks including Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, and Showtime. He was a regular guest commentator on Fox Business Network's Freedom Watch and Stossel.
Ben teaches an undergraduate course in Global Business Economics and Policy and a graduate course in Austrian Economics.
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Education
George Mason University
Ph.D., Economics, 2003
M.A., Economics, 2002
University of Massachusetts Lowell
B.S., Finance and Economics, 2000
Academic Positions
Texas Tech University
Professor of Economics, Rawls College of Business, 2014-
Executive Director, Free Market Institute, 2019-
Director, Free Market Institute, 2013-2019
Visiting Professor, Rawls College of Business, 2013-2014
Suffolk University
Associate Professor of Economics, 2011-2012
Assistant Professor of Economics, 2007-2011
San Jose State University
Assistant Professor of Economics, 2003-2007
Other Professional Positions
Independent Institute
Senior Fellow, 2011-
Research Fellow, 2007-2011
Director, Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation, 2004-2007
Southern Economic Association
Secretary/Treasurer, 2017-
The Association of Private Enterprise Education
Secretary/Treasurer, 2019-
Executive Committee Member, 2015-2019
Past President, 2012-2013
President, 2011-2012
Vice President, 2010-2011
Executive Committee Member, 2006-2010
The Mont Pelerin Society
Treasurer, 2021-
Director, 2018-2021
American Institute for Economic Research
Trustee, 2017-
Voting Member, 2016-
The Journal of Private Enterprise
Editorial Board Member, 2009-
The Review of Austrian Economics
Associate Editor, 2020-
North American Editor, 2013-2019
Associate Editor, 2008-2012
KTTZ-TV Texas Tech Public Media
Host and Co-Executive Producer, Free to Exchange, 2014-2020
Society for the Development of Austrian Economics
President, 2015
Beacon Hill Institute
Senior Economist, 2007-2012
Books, Edited Volumes, and Symposiums

The Political Economy of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Peter Boettke and Benjamin Powell, Guest Editors
Southern Economic Journal
John E. Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021

Wretched Refuse?
The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions
Alex Nowrasteh and Benjamin Powell
Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society
Cambridge University Press, 2020

Socialism Sucks:
Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World
Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell
Regnery Publishing, 2019

Economic Freedom and Prosperity:
The Origins and Maintenance of Liberalization
Benjamin Powell, Ed.
Routledge Foundations of the Market Economy
Routledge, 2018

Economic and Political Change after Crisis:
Prospects for Government, Liberty and the Rule of Law
Stephen Balch and Benjamin Powell, Eds.
Routledge Foundations of the Market Economy
Routledge, 2016

The Economics of Immigration:
Market-Based Approaches, Social Science, and Public Policy
Benjamin Powell, Ed.
Oxford University Press, 2015

Out of Poverty:
Sweatshops in the Global Economy
Benjamin Powell
Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society
Cambridge University Press, 2014
Scholarly Journal Publications
2024
Sweatshop Boycotts: Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them
Business Ethics Quarterly (with Linan Peng)
The Evolution of U.S. State Economic Freedom During the Pandemic's Second Year
The Journal of Private Enterprise (with Vincent Miozzi)
Global Economic Freedom During the Second Year of the Pandemic
Journal of Institutional Economics (with Vincent Miozzi)
No Sweat? Living Standards and Sweatshop Wages in Developing Countries
The Independent Review (with Towhid Mahmood)
2023
The Pre-Pandemic Political Economy Determinants of Lockdown Severity
Public Choice (with Vincent Miozzi)
US State-Level Economic Freedom during the COVID-19 Pandemic
American Journal of Economics and Sociology (with Vincent Miozzi)
Anti-sweatshop Activism and the Safety-Employment Tradeoff: Evidence from Bangladesh's
Rana Plaza Disaster
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (with Kevin Grier and Towhid Mahmood)
Measuring Economic Freedom during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Journal of Institutional Economics (with Vincent Miozzi)
2022
Does Aid Cause Changes in Economic Freedom?
Southern Economic Journal (with Jamie Bologna Pavlik and Andrew Young)
The Ethics of Doing Business with Illegal Immigrants
The Independent Review (with Jason Brennan)
2021
Simpler Evidence on Immigration and Institutions: An Assessment
Econ Journal Watch (with Jamie Bologna Pavlik and Estefania Lujan Padilla)
2020
The Determinants of Economic Freedom: A Survey
Contemporary Economic Policy (with Robert Lawson and Ryan Murphy)
Making Sense of Dictatorship and Health Outcomes
British Medical Journal Global Health (with Vincent Geloso and Gilbert Berdine)
2019
Do Immigrants Import Terrorism?
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (with Andrew Forrester, Alex Nowrasteh, and Michaelangelo Landgrave)
Solving the Misesian Migration Conundrum
The Review of Austrian Economics
The 'Minimal' State Reconsidered: Governance on the Margin
The Review of Austrian Economics (with J.R. Clark)
Cultural Baggage: Do Immigrants Import Corruption?
Southern Economic Journal (with Jamie Bologna Pavlik and Estefania Lujan Padilla)
2018
Cuban Infant Mortality and Longevity: Health Care or Repression?
Health Policy and Planning (with Gilbert Berdine and Vincent Geloso)
Sweatshop Regulations: Tradeoffs and Value Judgements
Journal of Business Ethics
Raveling the Immigration Narrative
The Independent Review
2017
Does Mass Immigration Destroy Institutions? 1990s Israel as a Natural Experiment
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (with J.R. Clark and Alex Nowrasteh)
The Global Spread of Think Tanks and Economic Freedom
The Journal of Private Enterprise (with Matt Ryan)
Economic Calculation and the Productivity of Investment
Journal of Business Valuation and Economic Loss Analysis (with Gonzalo Macera)
Economic Freedom and Mass Migration: Evidence from Israel
Cato Journal
Causes and Barriers to Increases in Economic Freedom
International Review of Economics (with Conrad Lyford and Raymond March)
2016
The Economics of Immigration: An Austrian Contribution
The Review of Austrian Economics
Dynamics of Intervention in the War on Drugs: The Build-up to the Harrison Act of
1914
The Independent Review (with Audrey Redford)
The U.S. Economy: The New Normal and an Unsustainable Future
The Independent Review (with Taylor Smith)
2015
War and the Growth of Government
European Journal of Political Economy (with Colin OReilly)
Does Immigration Impact Institutions?
Public Choice (J.R. Clark, Robert Lawson, Alex Nowrasteh, and Ryan Murphy)
2014
Nutritional Efficiency Wages and Unemployment: Where's the Beef?
American Journal of Agricultural Economics (with Ryan Murphy)
Meet the Old Sweatshops: Same as the New
The Independent Review
Markets as Processes of Moral Discovery
Studies in Emergent Order (with Rosolino Candela)
Capital Theory and the Process of Inter-Temporal Coordination: The Austrian Contribution
to the Theory of Growth
Atlantic Economic Journal (with GP Manish)
Contact
Email: benjamin.powell@ttu.edu
Phone: (806) 834-3097
Offices: Administration 165
Rawls College of Business NW307
Free Market Institute
-
Address
Texas Tech University - Box 45059 - Lubbock, TX - 79409-5059 -
Phone
806.742.7138 -
Email
free.market@ttu.edu