Robert Ekelund
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
economist.
Education
Originally from Galveston, TexasGalveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
, Ekelund attended St. Mary's University
St. Mary's University, Texas
St. Mary's University is a Catholic and Marianist liberal arts institution located on northwest of downtown San Antonio, Texas, United States. St. Mary’s is a nationally recognized master’s level school ranked among the top colleges in the west for best value and academic reputation by U.S. News...
in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
, earning his B.B.A. in economics in 1962 and his M.A.
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in economics and history the next year. He was a member of the Order of the Barons and first worked as an instructor in economics while completing his master's degree.
He then moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
to teach and continue his graduate work at Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
. He finished his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in economics and political theory there in 1967. His doctoral dissertation was on Jules Dupuit
Jules Dupuit
Jules Dupuit was an Italian-born French civil engineer and economist.He was born in Fossano, Italy then under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. At the age of ten he emigrated to France with his family where he studied in Versailles — winning a Physics prize at graduation. He then studied in the...
, a French civil engineer and economist. Ekelund would maintain this interest in Dupuit, making him the topic of a dozen journal articles and a 1999 book, Secret Origins of Modern Microeconomics: Dupuit and the Engineers.
Professional information
In 1967, after the completion of his Ph.D., Ekelund was hired by Texas A&M UniversityTexas A&M University
Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...
economics department. He was made Professor of Economics in 1974 and remained on the faculty of the College Station, Texas
College Station, Texas
College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in East Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley. The city is located within the most populated region of Texas, near three of the 10 largest cities in the United States - Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio...
school until 1979, when he moved to Auburn, Alabama
Auburn, Alabama
Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama with a 2010 population of 53,380. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area...
to become a professor at Auburn University
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
. Ekelund was a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and in 2003 he served as the Vernon Taylor Distinguished Visiting Professor at Trinity University
Trinity University (Texas)
Trinity University is a private, independent, primarily undergraduate, university in San Antonio, Texas. Its campus is located in the Monte Vista Historic District and adjacent to Brackenridge Park....
in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
.
Ekelund is now Catherine and Edward Lowder Eminent Scholar Emeritus at Auburn University and is a policy advisor to the Heartland Institute
Heartland Institute
The Heartland Institute is a libertarian, American public policy think tank based in Chicago, Illinois which advocates free market policies. The Institute is designated as a 501 non-profit by the Internal Revenue Service and advised by a 15 member board of directors, which meets quarterly. As of...
. He is also an Independent Institute
Independent Institute
The Independent Institute is a libertarian think tank based in Oakland, California. Founded in 1986 byDavid J. Theroux , the Institute sponsors studies of major political, social, economic, legal, environmental and foreign policy issues. It has more than 140 research fellows. The Institute was...
research fellow and an adjunct faculty member of the Mises Institute.
Significance in economics
Economic topics notably discussed by Ekelund include the history of economic thoughtHistory of economic thought
The history of economic thought deals with different thinkers and theories in the subject that became political economy and economics from the ancient world to the present day...
, the economics of regulation, the economics of religion, public choice theory
Public choice theory
In economics, public choice theory is the use of modern economic tools to study problems that traditionally are in the province of political science...
, mercantilism
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is the economic doctrine in which government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the prosperity and security of the state. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from...
, and the economics of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
s.
Textbooks by Ekelund have sold successfully, with his and Robert Tollison
Robert Tollison
Robert D. Tollison is an American economist who specializes in public choice theory.-Education:A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Tollison attended local Wofford College where he earned an A.B. in business administration and economics in 1964. He completed an M.A. in economics at the...
's Economics now in a seventh edition. He also earned a place in the Who's Who in Economics and has been actively involved with the Southern Economic Association
Southern Economic Association
Chief Honourable Akeem Musa Maluda was appointed Executive Chairperson of the Nigerian Anti-crime force unit in September 2004. he succeeded Rashida Abdulahi in this post.-Background:...
since serving as its vice-president in 1984.
Ekelund's 1981 book with Tollison, Mercantilism as a Rent-Seeking Society, is cited as an exemplar of the school of thought that argues that mercantilism
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is the economic doctrine in which government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the prosperity and security of the state. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from...
, rather than being the result of miscalculation, was a system designed by rent-seekers to enforce public policy favorable towards themselves.
Dupuit and the French engineers
- The book succeeds in staking out a claim for Dupuit as one of the founders of formal economic theory and reasoning. This is a stellar performance and a book that will shake up the historiography of the discipline for decades to come. At future professional meetings we shall debate the origins of modern neoclassical economics: British or French?
Economics of religion
Sacred Trust and The Marketplace of Christianity have both spawned debate among those interested in one of the latest new "fields" in economics—the economics of religion. Economist John Wells argues in his March 1998 Journal of Markets and Morality review of Sacred Trust that,- The upshot from each of the chapters is that the Church consistently sought after profits and responded to economic incentives in a manner consonant with modern economic analysis. Taken as a whole, they propose numerous challenges to those who maintain a public-interest approach to Church history.
In his Chronicle of Higher Education review of The Marketplace of Christianity, David Glenn notes that arguments in the book that Westerners have demanded “cheaper” religions over time are at odds with assertions by economist Laurence R. Iannaccone that "strict churches are strong." Barry R. Chiswick in his 2009 review of the book in the Journal of Economic Literature, notes that Ekelund and his cohorts use income, education, the state of science and full price of alternative religious beliefs to predict the types of religions chosen. Factors affecting demand and risk profiles between mainline Protestant religions, on the one hand, and fundamentalist and traditionalist Roman Catholics, on the other relate
- ...to the issues of sex, including sexual behavior and identity (e.g., premarital sex, homosexuality and procreation (e.g., birth control, abortion). These issues are dividing Christianity within the developed countries, and between Christians in the developed and less-developed countries. It is because of sharp differences in views on these issues and doctrinal rigidity that schisms have emerged in some Protestant denominations and [the authors] predict a schism (or several schisms) in the Roman Catholic Church. These schisms, responding to heterogeneous demanders, increase the extent of product differentiation in this market.
Chiswick concludes that schisms are beneficial and that "[t]hese ideas seem to be particularly relevant in the current period where religious fundamentalism and liberalism/individualism are clashing to various degrees in all the world’s religions. The application of microeconomic theory that is so successfully applied here to one major development in Christianity can, in principle, be applied to these other religions as well."
Fine arts
Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art
The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art is an art museum on the campus of Auburn University, and is the only university art museum in Alabama. Opened on October 3, 2003, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art contains six exhibition galleries within its of interior space. In addition to the...
in Auburn, Alabama
Auburn, Alabama
Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama with a 2010 population of 53,380. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area...
and was the museum's acting co-director from 2006 to 2007.
He is also a classically-trained pianist and has recorded three albums for which he played the Mises Institute's Bösendorfer
Bösendorfer
Bösendorfer is an Austrian piano manufacturer, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha. The brand is known for producing pianos with a uniquely rich, singing, and sustaining tone...
Imperial Concert Grand Piano, Solace (also called For The Piano), Reverie, and Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, performing works by Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Ravel, Grieg, Scott Joplin and others. He has been a contestant in the 2008 and 2009 Van Cliburn Amateur YouTube Competition and he created an homage to Chopin's 200th birthday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g7-dSnT1uY. His album Bach, Beethoven, Brahms was produced in 2010.
As author
- A History of Economic Theory and Method with Robert F. Hébert. (available in Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, Chinese, and Portuguese editions) McGraw-Hill, 1975. (ISBN 0-0701-9143-3; 5th edition, Waveland Press. 2007, ISBN 57766-486-8)
- Mercantilism as a Rent-Seeking Society: Economic Regulation in Historical Perspective with Robert TollisonRobert TollisonRobert D. Tollison is an American economist who specializes in public choice theory.-Education:A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Tollison attended local Wofford College where he earned an A.B. in business administration and economics in 1964. He completed an M.A. in economics at the...
. Texas A&M University Press, 1981. - The Essentials of Money and Banking with Leonardo AuernheimerLeonardo AuernheimerLeonardo Auernheimer was an economist, professor, and international monetary consultant.Auernheimer was born in Argentina on August 27, 1936 to Jose Ignacio Auernheimer and Maria Elena Savanti de Auernheimer. He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires and received his Ph. D in Economics from...
. John Wiley & Sons, 1982. - Macroeconomics with Charles DeLorme. Business Publications, 1983.
- Economics: Private Markets and Public Choice with Robert Tollison. Little, Brown, and Company, 1986. (7th Edition. Addison-Wesley-Longman, 2006. ISBN 0-321-33630-5)
- Advertising and the Market Process: A Modern Economic View with David Saurman. Pacific Institute, 1988.
- A History of Economic Theory and Method, with Robert F. Hébert, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990
- Intermediate Macroeconomics with Charles D. DeLorme and Dennis Jansen. West Educational Publishing, 1994.
- Intermediate Microeconomics: Price Theory and Applications with Richard Ault. D. C. Heath, 1995.
- Classics in Economic Thought with Robert F. Hébert. McGraw-Hill, 1996.
- Politicized Economies: Monarchy, Monopoly, and Mercantilism with Robert Tollison. Texas A&M University Press, 1997. (ISBN 0-8909-6745-8)
- Secret Origins of Modern Microeconomics: Dupuit and the Engineers with Robert F. Hébert. University of Chicago Press, March 1999. (ISBN 0-2261-9999-1)
- Sacred Trust: The Medieval Church as an Economic Firm with Robert F. Hébert, Robert Tollison, Gary Anderson, and Audrey Davidson. Oxford University Press, 2003. (ISBN 0-1951-0337-8)
- Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War with Mark ThorntonMark ThorntonMark Thornton is an American economist of the Austrian School. Thornton has been described by the Advocates for Self-Government as "one of America's experts on the economics of illegal drugs." Thornton has written extensively on that topic, as well as on the economics of the American Civil War,...
. Scholarly Resource Books, 2004. (ISBN 0-8420-2961-3) - The Persistence of Myth and Tragedy in Twentieth-Century Mexican Art with Catherine Walsh. Taylor Museum of Art, 2004.
- The Marketplace of Christianity with Robert F. Hébert and Robert D. Tollison. (available in Italian) MIT Press, November 2006. (ISBN 0-2620-5082-X)
- Economic Origins of Roman Christianity with Robert D. Tollison. University of Chicago Press (forthcoming Fall 2011).
As editor
- The Evolution of Modern Demand Theory: A Collection of Essays with Eirik G. Furubotn and W. P. Gramm. D. C. Heath and Co., 1972
- The Foundations of Regulatory Economics in 3 volumes. Edward Elgar, 1988.