Join us as three economists discuss the benefits of markets, and how markets pervade nearly every social interaction we have, including  their diverse areas of  research.

This eye-opening discussion is part of the Menard Family Lecture Series, and is presented by the Center for Free Enterprise in the College of Business. It is free and open to all. Refreshments will be served. 

About our Panelists:

Abigail Hall Blanco, PhD is an Associate Professor of Economics at Bellarmine University in Louisville. She is a Senior Affiliated Scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and an Affiliated Scholar with the Foundation for Economic Education. She is a Senior Fellow at Pegasus Institute and a Research Fellow with the Independent Institute. She holds a PhD in Economics from George Mason University.

Hall is the coauthor of Manufacturing Militarism: U.S. Government Propaganda in The War On Terror and Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of US Militarism, both with Stanford University Press. Her broader research interests include Austrian Economics, Political Economy, and Defense and Peace Economics. Her work includes topics surrounding U.S. national defense and militarism, including, police militarization, domestic extremism, propaganda, technology in warfare, and the impacts of foreign conflict on domestic institutions.

Dr. Stefanie Haeffele is the Senior Program and Operations Director of Academic & Student Programs, and a Senior Fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Her research focuses on post-disaster community recovery and she has experience working at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the US Forest Service.

Audrey Redford, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the College of Business at Western Carolina University where she is also a Faculty Affiliate of the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise. She earned her PhD in Agricultural & Applied Economics from Texas Tech University in 2016 during which time she was a PhD Fellow with the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University. Prior to attending Texas Tech, Dr. Redford earned her BBA in Economics from James Madison University. Dr. Redford’s research interests include Austrian economics, public choice, and comparative institutional analysis as tools to understand the ways in which markets adapt to changes in policy and institutional foundations. Her published research largely focuses on the unintended consequences of drug prohibition as well as interventionism and entrepreneurship in illicit drug markets. She has published her research in academic journals including the Southern Economic Journal, Journal of Entrepreneurship & Public Policy, Review of Austrian Economics, and The Independent Review. Dr. Redford currently serves on the Executive Committee for the Association of Private Enterprise Education as well as the Advisory Board for the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise at Western Carolina University.