Econ Society
Economics Department Student Involvement
Economics Society is a student organization dedicated to promoting the economic way of thinking and committed to the personal, professional, and academic development of all students interested in the study of economics.
Every other week the Econ Society gets together for alternating reading and current-events discussion sessions. The current event sessions sessions, called Econ Squawk, give students a great chance to look at the day’s news from an economics perspective without being too formal.
The Econ Society also has a monthly Law & Economics Seminar and Economic Liberty Lecture Series (ELLS) co-hosted by the Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF). Students this semester have a chance to discuss the Legal Tender cases with FFF’s Jacob Hornberger, a former law professor. At the ELLS, large numbers of students flock to hear economists like Jeffrey Miron, Donald Boudreaux, Bryan Caplan, Larry White, and David Friedman lecture about economic topics related to liberty.
While the Economics Society isn’t officially affiliated with any other student groups, its members have been highly involved with the GMU Students for Liberty group. Last year, the Econ Society was nominated for Group of the Year by the national Students for Liberty (SFL) organization. Liya Palagashvili, the Econ Society’s former President, won Student of the Year in 2010, and is now on the Executive Board of SFL.
The Econ Society also hosts a lecture with a featured economist nearly every month open to all Mason students. In the past, the group has been able to feature panels on healthcare reform and Haiti, a few debates on topics like immigration and healthcare, and lectures on the drug war and institutions.