Peter Lewin's home page

University of Texas at Dallas, School of Management.

Contents :

This page may be of use to students and interested colleagues. I have included links to my courses, my resume, some recent and current work, colleagues working in related areas and my personal interests.

· Teaching

· Academic Interests

· Current Articles and Workpapers

· Colleagues working in related areas

· Resume

· Personal Interests

Peter Lewin's Home Page

Clinical Professor, Managerial Economics

“There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy”

plewin@utdallas.edu

(972).883.2729 /FAX (972).883.2799

Office: SOM 3.223

Lewin’s Laws:

1. When all else fails use common sense.

2. You cannot know the unknowable.

3. Other people’s mathematics is always more difficult than your own

(I have adopted this one from someone – I forget whom).

Fee Students click here

Teaching “No one should teach who is not in love with teaching.” Margaret E. Sangster (1838–1912).

Courses: - I make extensive use of WebCT in all my courses:

Log into WebCT and click on the relevant course to enter.

Click on the course title to go to the course web page

Fall 2009: August 20 –December 7 (Final exams December 10 - 23).

Course		Section	Call #	Title	Days	Start	End	Room
FIN	6308	0G1	10899	REGULATION OF BUSINESS & FINANCIAL MARKETS

MECO	6303	0T1	10879	BUSINESS ECONOMICS

MECO	6303	MBC	cohort	BUSINESS ECONOMICS	T	11: 00 a.m.	2:30 p.m*.	SOM 2.117
MECO	6303	PJM	project management	BUSINESS ECONOMICS

*Break for lunch 12:15 – 1:15

New for Spring 2010

NEW SPECIAL TOPICS COURSE!!

Special Topics Course MAS 6V06 501 3 credit hours, F 1600 -1845

MARKET-BASED ECONOMICS

An understanding of the dynamics of markets is more necessary than ever, especially for business students. In each generation of students there is a need to revisit established authorities and refresh our understanding of the importance of market-based institutions. This course aims to foster an appreciation of the way in which markets can be harnessed to enrich individuals, corporations and societies. It builds on an understanding of neoclassical economics and applies it to a dynamic world using a process approach that originated with Carl Menger (deriving from Adam Smith) through to Friederich Hayek and beyond. Such an approach is particularly appropriate for our rapidly changing dynamic economic environment.

Topics:

1. How are history, philosophy, politics, sociology and economics related?

2. The wealth of nations and the transition from poverty

3. What is Capitalism? What is it not? Does it matter?

4. Classical economics and the defense of laissez faire.

5. The critics of Capitalism – the Socialist Calculation Debate

6. Ricardian, Austrian and Neoclassical methods and how they differ – the nature of the market

7. The development of Market-Process economics (from Menger to Kirzner)

8. The capital structure of the economy

9. The entrepreneur

10. The nature of the firm – a capital-based theory of the firm

11. Managing in a market economy

12. Business cycles: Monetary and Fiscal Policy

13. War, Peace and Globalization

14. Capitalism and Democracy – written and unwritten constitutions

15. Education, Health-Care, Retirement and related concerns – markets and hierarchies

A reading selection with discussion questions will be provided for each session. Students should come prepared to discuss these. Grades will be based on participation and on a short term paper.

¨ Academic Interests

My original area of specialization was in monetary theory and later (at the university of Chicago) in labor economics where I was fortunate to have been able to study with Gary Becker (most particularly the economics of discrimination, human capital and the distribution of income). Though trained at Chicago, I retained an interest in the economics of the Austrian School, having been introduced to it by my teacher as an undergraduate, Ludwig M. Lachmann. In recent years most of my research has been on issues connected to the revival of the Austrian School and its ability to enhance the insights of modern economic theory. More specifically, I have revived an early interest of mine in the theory of capital, for which the Austrian School is mostly known, but about which, I have always felt, there is much misunderstanding. Along these lines I have tried to kindle some interest in the contributions of Ludwig Lachmann to the theory of capital and, perhaps more importantly, to extend and apply his insights. I have been very excited to find that the modern information-age world serves to illustrate Lachmann's insights even more graphically than he could have imagined. I have been drawn to recent studies of the theory of the firm currently proliferating not only in economics but also (perhaps even moreso) in the related disciplines of corporate strategy and management. It has been of considerable interest to find in this literature profound commonalities with the Austrian market process approach and the theory of capital structures (as developed by Lachmann and Hayek). This research area is ripe for productive cross-fertilization as the strategy-organization approach can inform the Neoclassical theory of the firm and help the Austrian approach to develop a theory of the firm that it is lacking. Neoclassical economic theory works with formal models of representative firms, that is, firms that are, in all essential respects, identical. The essentials are captured by the elements of the “production function.” Though many important insights (concerning the pure logic of choice faced by firms as decision-makers) have, and continue to be, derived from this approach, it nevertheless falls short in one very crucial respect. It is unable to explain why some firms do better than others, and indeed how it is that any kind of sustainable competitive advantage is possible. In other words, Neoclassical theory is equilibrium theory and can be fruitfully supplemented by disequilibrium or process theory. Most recently, I have also revived and interest in household economics and am exploring connections between Austria and Chicago that are relevant to this. Some recent work appears below.

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¨ Current Work (Books, Book Reviews, Articles and Workpapers):

Books:

Capital in Disequilibrium

1. Capital in Disequilibrium: the role of capital in a changing world (New York and London: Routledge, 1999).

Recipient of the 1999 Smith Prize for the best book published on Austrian Economics

The Economics of QWERTY

2. The Economics of QWERTY: History, Theory and Policy, Essays by Stan J. Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis, Edited with an Introduction and Conclusion by Peter Lewin (New York: New York University Press; and London: Palgrave (formerly Macmillan) 2002).

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 11 The Current State of the Debate

Articles and Papers:

1. Can Ideas be Capital: Can Capital be Anything Else? With Howard Baetjer 2008

2. Creativity or Coercion: Alternative Perspectives on Rights to Intellectual Property, Journal of Business Ethics 2007, (71) 441–455.

3. The Firm in Disequilibrium: Contributions from the Austrian Tradition (Advances in Austrian Economics, forthcoming).

4. The Capital Idea and the Scope of Economics. Review of Austrian Economics, 2005, 18 (2 )145-167.

5. Facts, Values and the Burden of Proof (The Independent Review, Spring, 2007, XI (4) 503-517).

6. Heterogeneous Human Capital, Uncertainty, and the Structure of Plans: A Market Process Approach to Marriage and Divorce with Steven Horwitz Review of Austrian Economics, forthcoming 2008.

7. Entrepreneurship and the Defense of Capitalism: An Examination of the Work of Israel Kirzner. Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines. 12 (2/3) June-September 2002: 203-212.

8. The Development of Austrian Economics: Revisiting the Neoclassical Divide. Review of Austrian Economics 14 (4) 2001, 239-251.

9. The Market Process and the Economics of QWERTY: Two Views Review of Austrian Economics, 14 (1), 2001, 65-96.

10. Rent and Resources: A Market Process Perspective with Steven E. Phelan, in Entrepreneurship and the Firm: Austrian Perspectives on Economic Organization, Edited by Nicolai Foss and Peter Klein, Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 2001.

11. Arriving at a Strategic Theory of the Firm with Steven E. Phelan International Journal of Management Reviews. December 2000.

12. My Teacher and his Legacy, Contribution to: Professor Lachmann (1906 - 1990): Scholar, Teacher, and Austrian School Critic of Late Classical Formalism in Economics in American Journal of Economics and Sociology 59 (3), July 2000, 381-390.

13. William Hutt and the Economics of Apartheid Constitutional Political Economy 11(3), October 2000.

14. An Austrian Theory of the Firm, with Steven E. Phelan, Review of Austrian Economics, 13 (1), 2000 59-80.

15. Firms, Strategies, and Resources: Contributions from Austrian Economics, with Steven E. Phelan, The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, (2), 1999, 3-18.

16. Paradox in Project-Based Enterprise: What Paradox,? California Management Review, with Steven E. Phelan, 42 (1) Fall 1999, 1-7

17. The Firm, Money and Economic Calculation American Journal of Economics and Sociology, October 1998.

18. Hayekian Equilibrium and Change Journal of Economic Methodology 1997, 4:2, 245-266.

19. Capital and Time: Variations on a Hicksian Theme, Advances in Austrian Economics vol, 4, 1997, 63-74.

20. Capital in Disequilibrium: A Reexamination of the Capital Theory of Ludwig M. Lachmann History of Political Economy Winter 1997, 1997, 29(3) 523-548.

21. Rothbard and Mises on Interest: An Exercise in Theoretical Purity Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Spring 1997, 141-159.

22. Murray Rothbard on Interest and Capital: An Exercise in Theoretical Purity Manuscript 1996 (longer version of the previous paper).

23. Time Complexity and Change: Ludwig M. Lachmann's Contributions to the Theory of Capital Advances in Austrian Economics vol. 3, 1996.

24. Methods and Metaphors in Capital Theory Advances in Austrian Economics vol. 2, 1995.

25. Capital Theory entry in Companion to Austrian Economics, edited by Peter Boettke (Edward Elgar, 1994).

26. Knowledge, Expectations and Capital: The Economics of Ludwig M. Lachmann Advances in Austrian Economics vol. 1, 1994, pp. 233-256.

27. Equality at any Price manuscript (an examination of the logic of affirmative action)