Steven Horwitz
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Steven G. Horwitz (February 7, 1964 – June 27, 2021) was an American
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
of the
Austrian School The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian school ...
. Horwitz was the Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise in the department of economics in the Miller College of Business at
Ball State University Ball State University (Ball State, State or BSU) is a public university, public research university in Muncie, Indiana. It has two satellite facilities in Fishers, Indiana, Fishers and Indianapolis. On July 25, 1917, the Ball brothers, indust ...
in Muncie, Indiana. In 2017, he retired as the Dana Professor of Economics Emeritus at St. Lawrence University.


Early life and education

Horwitz was born in
Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, to Ronald and Carol Horwitz. He was raised in Oak Park, Michigan, and graduated from Berkley High School in
Berkley, Michigan Berkley is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor ( M-1) in southeastern Oakland County. The population was 15,194 as of the 2020 Census. History Prior to ...
, in 1981. He graduated cum laude with an
A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in economics and philosophy from the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
in 1985, where he was also active with several
libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
student groups and where he wrote and performed with the Sunday Funnies/Comedy Company sketch comedy group. He received his M.A. (1987) and
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
(1990) in economics from
George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
in Fairfax, Virginia. At George Mason, he studied with
Don Lavoie Donald Charles Lavoie (April 4, 1951 – November 6, 2001) was an American economist of the Austrian School. He was influenced by Friedrich Hayek, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Michael Polanyi and Ludwig Lachmann. He wrote two books on the problem of ...
(who chaired his dissertation committee),
George Selgin George Selgin (; born 1957) is an American economist. He is Senior Fellow and Director Emeritus of the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, where he is editor-in-chief of the center's blog, ''Alt-M'', Professor Emeritu ...
, Karen Vaughn,
James M. Buchanan James McGill Buchanan Jr. (; October 3, 1919 – January 9, 2013) was an American economist known for his work on public choice theory originally outlined in his most famous work co-authored with Gordon Tullock in 1962, ''The Calculus of Consen ...
,
Don Boudreaux Donald Joseph Boudreaux (born September 10, 1958) is an American economist, author, professor, and co-director of the Program on the American Economy and Globalization at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Ea ...
, and
Richard E. Wagner Richard Edward Wagner (born April 28, 1941) is an American economist. He is professor of economics at George Mason University. He works primarily in the fields of public finance and public choice. Wagner received his doctorate in economics from ...
.


Professional history

In 1989, Horwitz joined the economics department of St. Lawrence University in
Canton, New York Canton is an incorporated town in St. Lawrence County, New York. The population was 11,638 at the time of the 2020 census. The town contains two villages: one also named Canton, the other named Rensselaer Falls. The town is named after the gr ...
. In 1993, he was appointed the inaugural Flora Irene Eggleston Chair in Economics. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1995 and to full professor in 2002. In 1999, he was awarded the annual Frank Piskor Lectureship, and in 2003 he was the recipient of the J. Calvin Keene award, which recognizes high standards of personal scholarship, effective teaching and moral concern. In 2007, Horwitz was elected by the faculty to one of six campus-wide Charles A. Dana Professorships. At St. Lawrence, Horwitz served as the associate dean of the first year from 2001 to 2007, overseeing the university's First Year Program. He consulted with other schools on living-learning programs and on teaching research and communication skills to first-year students. He was also interim director of the Center for Teaching and Learning in 2003–04. In fall 2017, Horwitz joined the department of economics at Ball State University as distinguished professor of free enterprise. He was also the director of the Institute for the Study of Political Economy. Horwitz was a long-time faculty member at the summer seminars of the Institute for Humane Studies and the
Foundation for Economic Education The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is an American conservative, libertarian economic think tank. Founded in 1948 in New York City, FEE is now headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a member of the State Policy Network. FEE offers pub ...
. In summer 2007, he was a visiting scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University in
Bowling Green, Ohio Bowling Green is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, Ohio, United States, located southwest of Toledo. The population was 30,028 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Toledo Metropolitan Area and a member of the Toledo Metropolitan Are ...
. Horwitz was a senior affiliated scholar of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in
Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...
, where he had conducted research on the role of Wal-Mart and the Coast Guard in the response to
Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
. He was also a senior fellow of the
Fraser Institute The Fraser Institute is a libertarian-conservative Canadian public policy think tank and registered charity. The institute describes itself as independent and non-partisan. It is headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Calgary, Tor ...
in Canada and had been a member of the Mont Pelerin Society since 1996. Horwitz was the 2020 recipient of the Julian L. Simon Memorial Award from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, honoring his work documenting human progress and the importance of liberal institutions. In 2019, he received the Prometheus Award for the Promotion of Economic Literacy from the Greek think tank KEFiM. Most of Horwitz's professional work was in the area of monetary theory and
macroeconomics Macroeconomics (from the Greek prefix ''makro-'' meaning "large" + ''economics'') is a branch of economics dealing with performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. For example, using interest rates, taxes, and ...
from an
Austrian school The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian school ...
perspective, with his 2000 book ''Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective'' best summarizing that work. He had also contributed to Austrian economics and the history of economic thought, as well as the social thought of
F. A. Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, Jurisprudence, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical lib ...
. After that book, he explored the economics and social theory of the family, including his book ''Hayek's Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the evolution of Social Institutions''. His "Open Letter to My Friends on the Left" in September 2008 was a widely read libertarian analysis of the mortgage crisis and has been translated into five languages. He was a frequent op-ed contributor to major newspapers and appeared on numerous radio shows as well as TV appearances on Stossel, Freedom Watch, and Smerconish on CNN. Horwitz identified himself as a
bleeding-heart libertarian Neoclassical liberalism, also referred to as Arizona School liberalismNeoclassical liberal philosophers such as David Schmidtz, Jerry Gaus, John Tomasi, Kevin Vallier, Matt Zwolinski and Jason Brennan all have a connection to the University of Ar ...
and was a regular contributor to the ''Bleeding Heart Libertarians'' weblog. He also contributed to Coordination Problem.


Personal life

Outside of his professional interests, Horwitz was a fan of hockey, especially the
Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...
, and classic rock, especially
Rush Rush(es) may refer to: Places United States * Rush, Colorado * Rush, Kentucky * Rush, New York * Rush City, Minnesota * Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois * Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream * Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...
. He wrote two scholarly articles on Rush in 2003. Horwitz was diagnosed with
multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, an ...
in 2017. He was public about his treatment and raised funds for multiple myeloma research on social media and in interviews. He died on June 27, 2021. He was married to Sarah Skwire, a senior fellow and director of communications at Liberty Fund, and they resided in Fishers, Indiana, with her two daughters. He had two children, Andrew and Rachel, from a previous marriage. Horwitz was Jewish.


Books and monographs

* ''Monetary Evolution, Free Banking, and Economic Order'', (Westview Press, 1992) . * Of Human Action but not Human Design': Liberalism in the Tradition of the Scottish Enlightenment'', 1999 Annual Frank P. Piskor Lecture, (St. Lawrence University, 2000) ASIN: B0006RFQ0G. * ''Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective'', (Routledge, 2000) . Co-winner of the 2001 Smith Prize in Austrian Economics for the best contribution to Austrian economics published in the previous three years. * ''Hayek's Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions'', (Palgrave, 2015) * ''Austrian Economics: An Introduction'', (
Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...
, 2020) .


Selected articles


As author or co-author


In Natural Disasters, Companies Operate Like Neighbors
''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
.'' * "Beyond Equilibrium Economics: Reflections on the Uniqueness of the Austrian Tradition," (with Peter J. Boettke and David L. Prychitko), ''Market Process'', 4 (2), Fall 1986, pp. 6–9, 20–25. * "Competitive Currencies, Legal Restrictions, and the Origins of the Fed: Some Evidence from the Panic of 1907," '' Southern Economic Journal'', 56 (3), January 1990, pp. 639–49. * "Monetary Exchange as an Extra-Linguistic Social Communication Process," ''Review of Social Economy'', 50 (2), Summer 1992, pp. 193–214. * "Money, Money Prices, and the Socialist Calculation Debate," ''Advances in Austrian Economics'', 3, 1996, pp. 59–77. * "Capital Theory, Inflation, and Deflation: The Austrians and Monetary Disequilibrium Theory Compared," ''
Journal of the History of Economic Thought The ''Journal of the History of Economic Thought'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal publishing articles and book reviews on the areas of history of economics, as well as its methodology. It is published by Cambridge University Press ...
'', 18 (2), Fall 1996, pp. 287–308. * "Monetary Calculation and Mises's Critique of Planning," ''
History of Political Economy The ''History of Political Economy'' is a journal published by Duke University Press, focusing on economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, a ...
'', 30 (3), Fall 1998, pp. 427–50. * "From The Sensory Order to the Liberal Order: Hayek's Non-rationalist Liberalism," '' The Review of Austrian Economics'', 13 (1), March 2000, pp. 23–40. * "From Smith to Menger to Hayek: Liberalism in the Spontaneous Order Tradition," '' The Independent Review'', 6 (1), Summer 2001, pp 81–97. * "The Costs of Inflation Revisited," ''The Review of Austrian Economics'', 16 (1), March 2003, pp. 77–95. * "The Functions of the Family in the Great Society," ''
Cambridge Journal of Economics The ''Cambridge Journal of Economics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics. The journal was founded in 1977 by the ''Cambridge Political Economy Society'' with the aim of publishing articles that followed the economic traditions esta ...
'', 29 (5), September 2005, pp. 669–684. * "Heterogeneous Human Capital, Uncertainty, and the Structure of Plans: A Market Process Approach to Marriage and Divorce" (with Peter Lewin), ''The Review of Austrian Economics'', 21 (1), March 2008, pp. 1–21. * "Making Hurricane Response More Effective: Lessons from the Private Sector and the Coast Guard During Katrina" Policy Comment #17, Mercatus Center, Washington, DC, March 19, 2008. * * "The Empirics of Austrian Economics" ''
Cato Unbound The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...
'', Cato, Washington, DC, September 5, 2012.


References


External links


Official website

Economics videos

Horwitz's bio
at the Mercatus Center * {{DEFAULTSORT:Horwitz, Steven 1964 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American economists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American economists 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American economics writers American libertarians American male non-fiction writers Austrian School economists Deaths from multiple myeloma Economists from Michigan George Mason University alumni George Mason University faculty Jewish American writers Mercatus Center People with multiple myeloma University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Writers from Detroit