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 include 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

Spring 2008: January - April 28 (Final exams May 1 – May 7. Grades due May 14).

Course	Number	Section	Call Number	Title	Days	Start	End	Room	Credit
MECO	6303	501	12507	BUSINESS ECONOMICS	TR	5:30 p.m.	6:45 p.m.	SOM2.722	3
MECO	6303	502	13392	BUSINESS ECONOMICS	R	7:00 p.m.	9:45 p.m.	SOM2.106	3
FIN	6320	0G1	11637	MONEY & CAPITAL MARKETS	Online				3
MECO	6303	0T1	12504	BUSINESS ECONOMICS	Online				3
MECO	6303	MIM	11602	BUSINESS ECONOMICS	Online				3

Summer 2008:May 23 – Ausust 4 (Final exams August 7- 13. Grades due August 20) Syllabuses will be updated for Summer shortly.

Course	Number	Section	Call Number	Title	Days	Start	End	Room	Credit
MECO	6303	5U1	10100	BUSINESS ECONOMICS	M	6:00 p.m.	10:00 p.m.	SOM1.212	3
MECO	6303	0G1	10099	BUSINESS ECONOMICS	Online				3
FIN	6320	0G1	10373	MONEY & CAPITAL MARKETS	Online				3

¨ 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