The next Human Progress and Flourishing Workshop is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 18, at 10 a.m. in Beckwith Recital Hall. Dennis Coates is set to present “Economic Freedom and the Russian Federation.”
All members of the NDSU community and the public are invited to attend the free event in-person or on Zoom. After the presentation, food and refreshments will be served in the Challey School of Music Atrium.
Coates is a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He earned his doctorate in economics from the University of Maryland, where he studied under professor Mancur Olson. Olson, an NDSU alumnus, was a renowned social scientist and author.
In his presentation, Coates will share the results of his research on economic freedom in the Russian Federation. He will examine the relationship between economic freedom and economic growth and entrepreneurship. He also plans to discuss the ideas of Mancur Olson on institutional sclerosis and how these findings relate to a setting like Russia.
Coates’ research areas include public choice, public finance and sports economics. He co-edited the book “Collected Choice: Essays in Honor of Mancur Olson,” in which he co-authored the essays “On the Shoulders of a Giant: The Legacy of Mancur Olson” and “Absolute and Relative Effects of Interest Groups on Economic Growth.”
Olson achieved acclaim for his work on special interest groups. His first book, “The Logic of Collective Action,” developed a theory of political science and economics that shed light on why interest groups often prevail in policymaking. Olson’s pioneering research and leadership helped found the fields of public choice economics and new institutional social science.
After growing up on a farm near Buxton, North Dakota, Olson attended the North Dakota Agricultural College — today’s NDSU — where he earned his bachelor’s degree in economics in 1954. He went on to study at Oxford as a Rhoades Scholar and earn his doctorate in economics from Harvard. He joined the faculty at the University of Maryland at College Park, where he taught Coates and many other students until his death in 1998.
Shortly after his death, The Economist wrote, “Had he lived, (Olson’s) theory of collective action might well have won him a Nobel prize in economics, though not a wholly uncontroversial one.”
“You can continue to see the legacy of Mancur Olson throughout the research community and as an inspiration for the Challey Institute,” said John Bitzan, director of the Challey Institute. “We are delighted to host one of Mancur’s former students to talk about his ideas in a modern context.”
The Human Progress and Flourishing Workshop, which is hosted by the Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth, invites internationally-renowned scholars from universities across the country to present their research and engage with the NDSU community.
The series continues every other Friday through April 22.
As a student-focused, land-grant, research university, we serve our citizens.
