Texas Tech University

Benjamin Powell

Executive Director

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.

Ben’s 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.

CV   Personal Website   SSRN   Google Scholar

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

Southern Economic Journal

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

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

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

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

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

Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy

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 O’Reilly)

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

TTU FMI Double T Logo