Dr Bruce L. Benson

Bruce L. Benson
Chair, Department of Economics,

DeVoe L. Moore Professor

and
Distinguished Research Professor

in Economics,
Courtesy Professor of Law,
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
Phone: (850) 644-7094
FAX: (850) 644-4535
E-Mail: bbenson@fsu.edu

SOME STUFF ABOUT ME:

I spent part of the summer of 2008 as a visiting Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, and when I left I was asked to fill out a Summer Visiting Research Fellow Questionnaire, and one question was “Please list any hobbies, passions, quirks, etc.” I thought this was an unusual question, but as I considered it, I decided that an honest answer actually would reveal a lot about me. This was my answer:

1. My biggest passion: my two daughters, Lacey (26, in medical school) and Katie (16, in high school) – both great kids – and my wife, Terrie, who has had a lot do with the fact that my daughters are great kids.

2. I am a Classical-Liberal/Libertarian: it probably is appropriate to call me a libertarian anarchist (or anarcho-capitalist); My experience in the U.S. Army infantry in Vietnam (1969-70) moved me a long way toward libertarian anarchist views (it certainly convinced me that government does things badly).

3. I am originally from Montana (and I really miss the mountains and high plains): perhaps as a result, I have a substantial interest in Western History: I developed and regularly teach a course in “The Economics of Native Americans”, for instance, perhaps the only course of its kind in the world (as a Westerner, I also was raised to appreciate the value of personal freedom, personal responsibility, individualism, and private property, another reason for becoming a libertarian)

4. I am and avid baseball fan, particularly of the Boston Red Sox and the Florida State Seminoles; I also follow the Atlanta Braves (due to proximity; I can get to some of their games); also follow the Denver Broncos and Seminoles in Football, the Seminoles in women’s soccer, and enjoy college basketball.

5. I passionately dislike being Department Chair (once again I am learning how badly government organizations do things).

Do you want some details?

1. I grew up in Harlem, Montana, entered college at the University of Montana (UM) in 1967, dropped out in December 1968, was drafted and entered the army in February 1969. After basic and advanced infantry training at Fort Lewis, Washington, I was sent to Vietnam where I spent a year in a combat infantry unit. I returned to UM in January 1971. I met Terrie Johnson, from Cut Bank, Montana, when I was a senior at the UM. She was a freshman. We were married in August of 1973. She has now put up with me for 35 years and 4 cross-country moves. Terrie quit school and worked as a secretary while I went through the Masters program in economics at UM. That was followed by our first big move, as I entered the PhD program at Texas A&M in 1975. Terrie continued working until I finished my PhD in 1978, and we made our second big move, to State College, PA where I accepted a position at Penn State. Terrie then went back to college, graduating with honors form Penn State in December of 1981. Lacey was born in June of 1982, just a couple of months before move number three. I took a position at Montana State University, and both Terrie and I were excited about going home. After three productive years with no raises due to state budget problems, however, we decided to move again, this time to Tallahassee, Florida. We have only moved twice since 1985, but just to different locations in Tallahassee. We contracted to have a house built, and sold our first house before the new one was finished, so we moved into an apartment for a few months, long enough for Katie to be born in November of 1991, and then we settled into the new house in February of 1992.

I always take advantage of any chance I get to brag about my kids, so I will start with Lacey. She is our academic star. She won all kinds of awards in high school, graduating first in her class in 2000, went to Dartmouth where she graduated with high honors, Phi Beta Kappa, and Summa Cum Laude in 2004. The next step was medical school, but first, after 16 (18 if you count pre-K and K) years in school, she took her first break from education. She spent part of the next year working in a Pediatrician’s office and part of it wandering around Europe, and some time during that period she also applied to and visited a bunch of medicals schools. She was accepted by so many that she was having some trouble deciding where to go, but then Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland offered her a four-year $40,000-per-year scholarship (that essentially cover her tuition and fees – yes, medical school is that expensive!). She is starting her fourth year now, and doing real well. It may sound like she doesn’t do much besides study, but that definitely is not the case. She started riding horses when she was 7, for instance, and she is now a very accomplished equestrian (she was on the Dartmouth Dressage Team for four years, and the president of the team from 2002 until she graduated in 2004, for example, and has her horse with her at medical school). Lacey has an adventurous streak too, so for example, she spent a summer as a volunteer in a clinic in rural Peru, another summer as a wrangler on a Dude Ranch in Wyoming, and as noted above, part of another summer wandering around Europe. Now she is applying to do one of her medical-school rotations in Ecuador or Guatemala. Lacey also is a lot of fun to hang out with, so she has lots of good friends (including one named Joe, also a med student, who seems to hang around with her a lot), and despite all the time she has spent over the years studying, she manages to have a lot of fun.

Katie is our creative star. She does have trouble deciding what she wants to do, however. My wife says she chases butterflies. She tries (chases) something for awhile, starts becoming quite good at it (in sports, for instance, she has shown promise in golf, soccer, fast-pitch softball, and swimming), but then moves to something else. It makes life interesting, and she is a lot of fun to be around, so I can’t complain. One butterfly does seem to fly back into view, however. She is, in fits and starts, becoming a very good artist. Her imagination and creativity are also revealed in her writing. She entered a short story in a county-wide competition last spring (over 600 entries in five age categories) and won first place in the high-school category. Katie has not taken her academic efforts as seriously as her sister, but they are alike in sister in couple of ways. Both have several very good friends, for instance. In fact, sometimes I think we are running a boarding school and travel agency for 16-year-old girls, all of whom love to talk, laugh, and have fun. In addition, both daughters have big hearts. Each of them has volunteered to serve as resident councilors at a summer camp for handicapped children, for instance. Lacey did it for three summers when she was in high school. Katie just completed her second summer, and she is already planning to go back next summer. Like I said, great kids!

Katie, Lacey (who was cold) & Joe, 7/4/08, waiting for the fireworks show near Cleveland, Oh

Terrie & me, 7/3/08, Put-in-Bay, OH;

even great kids can turn hair (& beard) grey!

2. I will not write much about libertarianism, as I have published many papers and books explaining my views. The anarcho-capitalist position arises because every government activity I have studied (e.g., policing, courts, law, highways, regulation) can be, has been, or is being produced better by the private sector, so I am yet to find a valid justification for the state. An autobiographical description of how I became a libertarian also is available at Another Path to Libertarianism. Finally, I will note that I received the Liberty in Theory 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Libertarian Alliance in London (the following pictures were taken at the Liberal Club in London during the talk I gave to the Liberal Alliance conference), and the 2006 Adam Smith Award from the Association of Private Enterprise Education, suggesting that at least some of what I have written has been appreciated by some people.

3. I have read a lot of western history, and I have now started writing about it in a much more significant way than I have in the past. I have a partially completed book manuscript on the buffalo economy of the Great Plains. I expect to continue this activity after I retire from the University (in about 8 years).

4. My parents bought their first television set when I was 7. We got one channel, and that channel offered the “game of the week” every Saturday during baseball season. The Yankees were on more than any other team, and my best friend became an avid Yankee fan. Being a contrarian, I had to follow another team, and I picked the Red Sox. I have followed them since then, mainly on television and in the newspaper. I only got to one live Red Sox game before this year, and that was in Seattle during Yaz’s last year. I finally got to a game in Fenway this summer. It was amazing. While I follow the Red Sox, I actually prefer the National League game (I am a traditionalist I guess, as I think that the designated hitter takes a lot of interesting managerial strategy away from the game). I also started following college baseball when I moved to Florida State, and women’s soccer when my daughter was going through her soccer phase. I played football in high school, so I also enjoy the game.

5. I agreed to serve as Chair of the Department of Economics in 2006, and it appears that I am stuck with the job until 2012. All I will say is that it was probably the worst decision I ever made!

SOME PROFESSIONAL STUFF:

1. Biographical Sketch: The following is a revised version (to update, and to eliminate the list of publications, as a publications list is provided below) of a biographical sketch that appears in Who's Who in Economics (2003):

Current Posts: Chair, 2006 -, DeVoe Moore Prof., 1997-, and Distinguished Research Prof., 1993-, Dept. of Econ; Courtesy Prof. of Law, 2006-; Research Assoc., 1994-, and Oversight/Advisory Board Mem., 2000-, DeVoe L. Moore Center; Research Assoc. 2008-, Program for the Study of Political Economy and Free Enterprise in the Gus A. Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL, USA. Sr. Fell., Independent Institute, Oakland, CA, USA, 1997-

Past Posts: Prof. Econ., 1987-93, Assoc. Prof. Econ., 1985-87, Faculty Assoc., Policy Sciences Center, 1987-93, Florida State Univ.; Research Fell., Independent Institute, Oakland, CA, USA, 1991-97; Assoc. Prof. Econ., Montana State Univ., 1982-85; Visiting Ass. Prof. Econ., 1978-79, Ass. Prof. Econ., 1979-82, Assoc. Prof. Econ., 1982, Pennsylvania State Univ.; Pacific Research Fell., Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, 1982-90; Salvatori Fell., Salvatori Center for Academic Leadership, Heritage Foundation, 1992-94; Fulbright Senior Specialist in Econ. to the Czech Republic, the Vysoká Škola Ekonomická (the University of Economics), Faculty of Econ. and Pub. Admin., Prague, 2003-04; Visiting Prof., University de Paris Pantheon Assas (Paris II),, March 2004; .Julian Simon Fell., Property and Environmental Research Center, Summer 2004; Visiting Research Fell,, American Institute for Economic Research, Great Barrington, MA, June 2008

Degrees: BA, MA Univ. of Montana, 1973, 1975; PhD Texas A&M Univ., 1978.

Offices and Honors: Liberty in Theory 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award, Libertarian Alliance; 2006 Adam Smith Award, Assoc. of Private Enterprise; 2004 Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education, Freedoms Foundation; Pres., 2002-03, Vice-Pres., 2001-02, Executive Committee Mem. 1999-2001 & 2003-04, Assoc. Private Enterprise Education; Advisory Council Mem., Friedreich A. von Hayek Foundation, Buenos Aires, 2001-; Assoc. Private Enterprise Education Distinguished Scholar Award, 2001; Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award, 2000; The Journal of Private Enterprise Best Paper Award, 1999; Professional Excellence Program Award, Florida State Univ., 1999; Board of Trustees, Southern Econ. Assoc., 1995-97; Ludwig von Mises Prize, 1992; Honorable Mention Runner-up, H. L. Mencken National Book Award, 1991; Georgescu-Roegen Prize for the best article in the Southern Econ. Journal, 1989; Earhart Foundation Research Fellowship, 1991, 1992, 1995, 2002; Institute for Humane Studies F. Leroy Hill Faculty Fellowship, 1985-1986.

Editorial Duties: Co-Ed., Economic Journal Watch, 2001-; Assoc. Ed., Journal of Regional Science, 1988-2003; Assoc. Ed., The Journal of Drug Issues, 1998-; Assoc. Ed., Review of Austrian Econ., 1998-; Contributing Ed., The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy, 1995-; Ed. Board Mem., Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, 1997-; Ed. Board Mem., Journal of Libertarian Studies, 1999-; Mem. of the Comité Scientifique, Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, 2002-.

Principal Fields of Interest: Law and Econ; New Institutional Economics; Public Choice; Economics of Crime and Substance Abuse.

Principal Contributions: M. L. Greenhut was my graduate-school mentor, and as a consequence, much of my early work was on spatial price theory. I also studied with Randall Holcombe, Svetozar Pejovich, and Eirik Furubotn, however, so I developed interests in public choice and neoinstitutional economics, and over time these interests expanded. Furthermore, when David Theroux asked me to contribute to a volume on gun control, I began documenting private responses to crime (initially to demonstrate that the dominant causal relationship ran from crime to guns for protection). As I explored this issue, I realized that the assumption dominating economics, that government provides and enforces the rules of the game, was not valid. This led to The Enterprise of Law, a number of articles on private policing, the Law Merchant, arbitration, and customary law, and another book, To Serve and Protect. This research continues, with a major focus on the evolution of law, and another on the relationships between private security regulation, security market performance, crime, and the demand for public policing. A new research focus also emerged in the late 1980s as David Rasmussen and I started exploring the economics and politics of illicit drug policy, and then of alcohol control issues. This collaboration generated a number of articles and a book. In the course of my career I have produced about 125 academic journal articles, and more than 45 chapters for edited volumes and more, along with many other publications.

2. FOR MORE DETAILS: see my VITA.

3. COURSES: I have taught many different courses over the last 32 years, including graduate and undergraduate microeconomics, graduate and undergraduate industrial organization, graduate and undergraduate regional economics, principles of micro (and even macro principles when I was a graduate student), and graduate new institutional economics. In recent years, however, my teaching focus has been in law and economics, and in the Economics of Native Americans course that I developed. Recent syllabi are available through the following links.

ECO 5936 Graduate level Law and Economics

ECO 3600 Economics of Native Americans

ECP 3451 Undergraduate Economics & the Law

4. SELECTED JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS, BOOKS, AND WORKING PAPERS: This list includes (1) pre-1999 publications that have been frequently cited and otherwise recognized, (2) publications with links or that have been recognized in some way, and are less than ten years old, and (3) selected working papers. See my VITA, linked above, for the other 80 journal articles, 45 plus chapters written for edited volumes, and other publications.

(1) FREQUENTLY CITED AND OTHERWISE RECOGNIZED PUBLICATIONS, 1980-1998

“Löschian Competition Under Alternative Demand Conditions

,” American Economic Review, December 1980, 1098‑1105.

“Spatial Competition: Implications for Market Area Delineation in Antimerger Cases,” Antitrust Bulletin, Winter 1980, 729‑749.

Republished: The Journal of Reprints for Antitrust Law and Economics (issue on "Relevant Markets in Antitrust,"1984).

Republished: The Economics of Location (Melvin L. Greenhut and George Norman, eds.London: Edward Elgar, 1995).

“Tariff Restrictions Which Lower Price in the Restricting Country: An Analysis of Spatial Markets” (with James C. Hartigan), Journal of International Economics, August 1983, 117‑133.

“Spatial Price Theory and an Efficient Congestion Toll Established by the Free Market,” Economic Inquiry, April 1984, 244‑252.

Republished: The Economics of Location (Melvin L. Greenhut and George Norman, eds. London: Edward Elgar,1995).

“Rent Seeking from a Property Rights Perspective,” Southern Economic Journal, October 1984, 388‑400.

“An Alternative View of Pricing in Retail Food Markets” (with Merle D. Faminow), American Journal of Agricultural Economics, May 1985, 296‑306.

“The Political Economy of Government Corruption: The Logic of Underground Government” (with John Baden), Journal of Legal Studies, June 1985, 391‑410.