KENNESAW, Ga. | Apr 19, 2019

Kennesaw State University’s Bagwell Center for the Study of Markets and Economic Opportunity is wrapping up its second academic year of operations.  Led by Center Director Dr. Timothy Mathews (Kennesaw State Professor of Economics), the mission of the Bagwell Center is to provide a platform for an interdisciplinary study of the importance of markets and economic institutions in regards to resource allocation, entrepreneurial activity, economic prosperity, and improved human welfare.  The Center emphasizes educating students about the foundations of market institutions and examining the related impact of government policies in a mixed economy, through extracurricular outreach activities such as guest lectures, film screenings, and workshops.  The primary objective of the Bagwell Center is to make KSU students (and other interested individuals from the broader community) aware of the critical relations between free-market institutions, individual choice, and realized economic outcomes.  Gaining an understanding of these issues is critical to becoming an educated citizen who can ultimately have a constructive impact on influencing or formulating public policy for the benefit of the community.

During the past year, the Center has hosted over a dozen public lectures by academics and public policy experts, including Steve Forbes (Forbes Media), Art Laffer (Laffer Associates), Ilya Somin (George Mason University), and Joshua Hall (West Virginia University).  The Center also organized seven public film screenings, showing movies or documentaries which highlighted important issues related to the history of economic thought, economic freedom, tax policy, and eminent domain.  Additionally, the Center organized several day-long workshops, each of which featured presentations by multiple scholars or public policy experts on a particular issue of focus.  These included a “Symposium on Accountability in K-12 Public Education” (October 12, 2018), a “Symposium on the Economic Impact of the Super Bowl” (January, 25, 2018), and a “Symposium on the Foundations and Applications of Game Theory” (March 26, 2019).  This final event featured a keynote address by Stanford University Professor Dr. Alvin Roth, co-recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.  All of these events are open to both the KSU community and the general public.  A schedule of future events can be found at coles/events.php; videos from past events can be found at: coles-multimedia.php.

Steve Forbes Visiting Coles

Art Laffer Engaging with Coles College Students

A new Bagwell Center initiative that was undertaken for the first time during the Spring 2019 was the “Market for Ideas Reading Groups.”  Theses reading groups provided current KSU students with a unique learning opportunity.  There were five different reading groups, each consisting of about nine students and a faculty leader.  The faculty leader chose a book intended for a general readership audience (i.e., a trade book, as opposed to a traditional college course textbook) which focused on issues related to markets, decision making, or economic history.  Students in each group then met for a total of three hours throughout the semester to discuss the book in depth, under the guidance of the faculty leader.  The faculty leaders in Spring 2019 were KSU professors Dr. James Boudreau, Dr. Burt Folsom (who led two groups, each focusing on a book which he wrote), Dr. Alex Maslov, and Dr. Timothy Mathews.  The group which was led by Dr. Mathews read the book “Who Gets What – and Why” written by Nobel Laureate Dr. Alvin Roth, who joined the reading group for their discussion when he was on campus for the “Symposium on the Foundations and Applications of Game Theory.”  Similar reading groups will be taking place in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020. 

Nobel Laureate Dr. Alvin Roth in Action

The Center also supports both faculty and student research in various capacities.  In regards to student research, the Bagwell Center’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship program is open to undergraduate students from any discipline or program at KSU.  The Fellowship seeks to engage students in the academic conversation about the impact of market institutions on society.  Fellows identify a research project and work under the supervision of a KSU faculty who serves as their research advisor, in order to produce a paper suitable for publication on the Bagwell Center webpage.  Former Research Fellow Robert Skinner commented: “Pursuing the undergraduate research fellowship with the Bagwell Center has deepened my appreciation of academic economic research…This fellowship has undoubtedly propelled my career, giving me valuable experience as I move forward onto more difficult challenges in research.”  

Research Fellows are paid a monetary stipend and are encouraged to apply for funding opportunities from the Bagwell Center to attend and present their research at academic conferences.  Two current research fellows – Dave Hagemann (Software Engineering major) and Carnell Tate (Mechanical Engineering major) – each presented their ongoing research projects at the prestigious “National Conference on Undergraduate Research” which took place here at KSU from April 11-13, 2019.  Carnell also presented his findings at the 47th annual conference of the Georgia Association of Economics and Finance which was held in Pine Mountain, GA on April 18-19, 2019.

Bagwell Center Research Fellows @NCUR

The Bagwell Center hopes to build upon this initial success by continuing to broaden its reach in order to have a more meaningful impact on its stakeholders in the future.  Learn more about the Bagwell Center.