Robert Van Horn
Robert Van Horn is an associate Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Rhode Island. His research interests include: 1) the life and work of Aaron Director (a renowned Chicago economist who is considered the father of Chicago Law and Economics); 2) the role that business has played in the development of economics; 3) the history Chicago law and economics and neoliberalism; 4) best practices in teaching the history of economics; 5) the intellectual contributions of Milton Friedman; and 6) Nonviolence and economics. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame, was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University’s Center for the History of Political Economy, and has been a visiting professor at Brown University’s Economics Department. Before coming to URI, he taught at Holy Cross College and University of Notre Dame.
Aaron Director
Corporations and the Rise of the Chicago Law and Economics Movement
From its birth in 1946 onward, corporations made possible and crucially supported the rise of the Chicago law and economics movement. Aaron Director,...
Latest news
Antitrust and Competition
The United States: An Exceptional Case? A Webinar With Stephen Haber, Richard R. John, and Luigi Zingales
Many see the US as a land where free markets and antitrust enforcement have historically kept monopolies under control. But is that...
COMMENTARIES
Bethany McLean’s Fourth of July Weekend Reading List: Jeff Bezos, Homeschooling, and How to Make Capitalism Work for All
Corruption, lobbying, corporate malfeasance, and frauds: a weekly unconventional selection of must-read articles by investigative journalist Bethany McLean.
Coronavirus
Lifting Lockdown Measures Won’t Bring Back Lost Jobs, New Study Suggests
A new paper examines data on local outbreaks in South Korea and finds that even in the absence of lockdowns, an increase...
Bailout
What Comes Next for Economic Policies to Combat Covid-19? A Conversation Between Six Booth Faculty
As the Covid-19 crisis evolves from a temporary shock into what seems like a long-term catastrophe, six finance scholars from Chicago Booth—Douglas...
News
A New Stigler Center Case Study Explores the Link Between Italy’s Morandi Bridge Disaster and Crony Capitalism
Two years ago, the Morandi bridge collapse claimed 43 lives. Based on financial statements, Italian government documents, and interviews with independent experts...
News
Few Bad Apples? New Study Finds That 40 Percent of Officers in a Large Police Force Are Discriminatory
A new paper seeks to examine whether police misbehavior is concentrated or diffuse by identifying whether highway patrol officers in Florida are...
Media
Bethany McLean’s Weekend Reading List: Wirecard, Shale Oil, and the Fall of Chuck E. Cheese
Corruption, lobbying, corporate malfeasance, and frauds: a weekly unconventional selection of must-read articles by investigative journalist Bethany McLean.
