“I want my son or daughter to be exposed to free market economics after high school. What colleges or universities do you recommend?”

If I’ve been asked that question once, I’ll bet I’ve been asked it a thousand times. Parents who cherish the values of freedom, limited government and private enterprise have good reason to be concerned about where they send their offspring for higher “education.” Academia is full of statist bias, and statists usually aren’t comfortable when the first non-statist is accidentally hired for a teaching position (they think it’s a takeover). So when you find an economics program in which free market ideas are treated with respect and given a prominent forum, it’s news to celebrate.

Keep in mind that I am talking here about economics, period. If a college or university has a good econ program, that doesn’t mean it also has a good offering or even a decent balance in its other social science programs.

On that occasion, I wrote about Florida Gulf Coast University.

The school I want to acquaint readers with this time is one I’ve become familiar with over the last academic year, Mercer University. Mercer has campuses in Atlanta, Macon, and Savannah. Its core undergraduate campus, which consistently ranks in the Top 10 for beautiful campuses in America, is located in Macon, Georgia. It’s an urban campus with an extremely active student body and great Southern cuisine nearby.

Some libertarian-leaning professors teach in the history, philosophy, and political science departments, but it’s the group of economists on Mercer’s Macon campus, all of whom are solid free market economists, that I’m most familiar with. A brief biography of each is provided below.

SCOTT A. BEAULIER, BB&T Distinguished Professor of Capitalism and Department Chair of Economics, earned his undergraduate degree in economics and history from Northern Michigan University (2000) and his M.A. (2002) and Ph.D. (2004) from George Mason University. Much of his research has focused on issues of economic development; in particular, he is one of the leading experts on Botswana’s growth miracle. His research maintains that Botswana’s rapid growth can be attributed to their being economically free and open. He has also published research in the areas of Austrian economics, law & economics, public choice economics, and economic education. Some of his popular press publications have appeared in leading newspapers, such as the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Wall Street Journal. He has been active with Liberty Fund, has taught for the Institute for Humane Studies, and will soon be teaching for the Foundation for Economic Education.

Professor Beaulier is also directing the Center for Undergraduate Research in Public Policy & Capitalism. The new center supports collaborative research between undergraduates and faculty members that addresses themes related to capitalism. This spring he will teach a course titled, “The Economic and Moral Foundations of Capitalism.”

WILLIAM S. MOUNTS, Associate Dean of the Stetson School of Business and Economics and Professor of Economics, earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Georgia. Dr. Mounts has over 50 academic articles, books, and presentations. His presentations have been at national and international conferences including the Southern Economics Association, the Western Economics Conference, and the central bank of Switzerland. Journals in which he has published include the Economics of Governance, Journal of Macroeconomics, Southern Economic Review, Public Choice, Journal of Sports Economics, Journal of Money, Banking and Credit and the Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics.

His current research interests include an examination of monetary regimes using extreme value estimation techniques, the aging of men and women, the economics of teamwork, and banking in the Great Depression. Much of this work focuses on how free market incentives create socially-desired outcomes and that governmentally-determined incentives do not.

Recently, Dr. Mounts and Dr. Beaulier have published opinion pieces in The Wall Street Journal and the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

ALLEN K. LYNCH, Director of Graduate Programs and Associate Professor of Economics, earned his earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of North Florida and his master’s and doctorate degrees at Florida State University. While at FSU, he was greatly influenced by many renowned public choice economists, such as Bruce Benson, Randy Holcombe, Jim Gwartney and David Rasmussen. He has taught at the University of North Florida and worked as a Senior Demographic Research Analyst for Blockbuster Entertainment Group prior to joining the Mercer University faculty in 2000.

He has published numerous journal articles, ranging from “Identifying the NCAA Tournament Dance Card,” a statistical model which accurately predicted 94 percent of college basketball teams that earned at-large bids for the NCAA tournament over the last 10 years (coauthored by B. Jay Coleman of the University of North Florida), to “Proximity, Neighborhood and the Efficacy of Exclusion,” recently published in Urban Studies (coauthored by David W. Rasmussen). While research related to the public choice aspects of real estate markets and crime dominate his research agenda, interest in the NCAA article resulted in substantial media attention. Over the last several years, stories related to this research appeared in The New York Times, Investors’ Business Daily, The Wall Street Journal, as well as several Associated Press outlets.

With so many campuses devoid of solid teaching that stresses the critical role of free markets and private property in economic progress, Mercer University is another welcome island in a sea of confusion.

If I’ve been asked that question once, I’ll bet I’ve been asked it a thousand times. Parents who cherish the values of freedom, limited government and private enterprise have good reason to be concerned about where they send their offspring for higher “education.” Academia is full of statist bias, and statists usually aren’t comfortable when the first non-statist is accidentally hired for a teaching position (they think it’s a takeover). So when you find an economics program in which free market ideas are treated with respect and given a prominent forum, it’s news to celebrate.

Keep in mind that I am talking here about economics, period. If a college or university has a good econ program, that doesn’t mean it also has a good offering or even a decent balance in its other social science programs.

Certain superb schools I am familiar with roll off the tongue quickly and easily: Very good economics programs and faculty are in place at Grove City College (my alma mater) in Pennsylvania, Hillsdale College and Northwood University in Michigan, George Mason University in Virginia, Houston Baptist and the University of Dallas in Texas, The Kings College in New York, San Jose State University in California, Auburn University in Alabama, Clemson University in South Carolina, Beloit College in Wisconsin, Florida State University and Webber International University in Florida, and the University of Arizona.

There are others as well, and I’ll write about them too in future weeks and months. The one I want to acquaint readers with on this occasion is one I’ve become familiar with in the last couple of years, Florida Gulf Coast University in Ft. Myers, Florida. It’s a place where students can get a good education in free market economics despite the distractions of a warm, sunny climate near the beach and great restaurants.

FGCU, as the locals call it, is one of the newest universities in the country, having opened its doors in 1997. Some of its dorms are better described as waterfront luxury apartments.  They share a lake with a golf-course community with multi-million dollar homes. Students have easy access to all sorts of watersports activities. More importantly, I know and have met four of the six members of the economics faculty and can vouch that they have strong free-market views. A brief biography of each is provided below.

BRADLEY K. HOBBS, BB&T Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise, earned his undergraduate degree in history and his Ph.D. in economics from Florida State University in 1991. His research interests are wide in range, encompassing economic history, the moral and philosophical foundations of free markets, property rights, economic freedom, and teaching methodologies. He has published in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, the Journal of Accounting and Finance Research, Journal of Real Estate Research, Laissez-Faire, Journal of Executive Education, Financial Practice and Education, and Research in Finance, among others. He has also written for the Foundation for Economic Education, the Institute for Humane Studies, and the Florida Council on Economic Education.

Professor Hobbs has been active in leading undergraduate research and was recently recruited as the founding Faculty Advisor for a new undergraduate research journal, the Journal of Liberty and Society. He has been a member of the National Teaching Faculty for the Foundation for Teaching Economics since 2001, taught for the Institute for Humane Studies, The Koch Associate’s Program and is active in The Liberty Fund having participated in programs as a participant, Discussion Leader, and Director. He serves on the Executive Board of the Association for Private Enterprise Education. Professor Hobbs has received the FGCU Senior Faculty Teaching Award and was a recipient of a 2008 Excellence in Teaching award from the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence. He has taught a wide variety of courses, though he currently teaches primarily intermediate microeconomics and the moral foundations of capitalism.

CARRIE KEREKES is an Assistant Professor of Economics. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from West Virginia University in 2008. She teaches Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, and Economic Development. Her research interests are in the areas of public choice and economic development, with an emphasis on institutions and property rights. Professor Kerekes regularly attends the meetings of the Association of Private Enterprise Education and has also participated in seminars sponsored by the Foundation for Economic Education and the Institute for Humane Studies.

DEAN STANSEL, Associate Professor of Economics, earned his Ph.D. from George Mason University in 2002. Prior to entering academia, Professor Stansel earned an undergraduate degree in economics and political science from Wake Forest University in 1991.  He then worked at the Cato Institute through 1999, where he produced over 60 publications on fiscal policy issues. Stansel attended several Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) seminars (as both student and lecturer) and received fellowships from IHS, as well as the Bradley Foundation and the Center for the Study of Market Processes. His current research interests involve the impact of competition between local governments on fiscal and economic outcomes, the relationship between the size of government and economic growth, state fiscal crises, and a variety of other issues in the areas of public economics and urban economics. His research has been published in a variety of journals including the Journal of Urban Economics, Public Finance Review, and the Cato Journal. He teaches mostly microeconomics, public sector economics, and urban economics.  Professor Stansel regularly attends the meetings of the Association of Private Enterprise Education and the Southern Economic Association. He and his wife (Robin Hulsey, who also worked at Cato in the late 1990s) have two young children.

CAROL SWEENEY earned her Master of Science in Development Studies from the University College Dublin, Ireland in the fall of 1993. Ms. Sweeney earned her undergraduate degree in economics from George Mason University, where she studied under Professors Peter Boettke and the late Don Lavoie. While at George Mason, she was president of the economics club, which hosted a lecture by Nobel Laureate James Buchanan, and attended an Institute for Humane Studies seminar. Prior to working in academia Ms. Sweeney worked in the communications and education industry. She teaches both principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics. Her research interests are in sports economics, development economics, and public choice economics. Ms. Sweeney recently attended her first Association of Private Enterprise Education meeting in Guatemala.

Give the economics program at FGCU a look. I think you will be hearing more good news from their offices and classrooms in the years to come.