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Blue-Chip Institute
Like a bull stock market, MTSU’S newest research center is on a steady rise
Article by Patsy B. Weiler
One of the leading economists in the 20th century, MTSU alumnus James M. Buchanan won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his leadership in developing the public choice theory. A farm boy from Rutherford County, he is the only MTSU student ever awarded a Nobel Prize and is among the most notable alumni to ever study at the University.
Like Buchanan, Daniel J. Smith grew up in rural poverty. Director of MTSU’s Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) since 2018 and an Economics professor, Smith was drawn to do graduate study at George Mason University, where he met and interacted with Buchanan, a major source of inspiration and founder of the Center for the Study of Public Choice.
“I wrote my dissertation under a committee comprised of his former students and co-authors, all well-known for their research in political economy,” Smith said. “It has been exciting to bring my training and experience to MTSU, especially with its historical connection to James M. Buchanan, and to help establish and build the Political Economy Research Institute.”
Wielding a stellar and ever-expanding team of research scholars, PERI is reaping great dividends across the campus, community, and country.
Political Economy Research Institute
FY17–21
• $271,610 external funding
• 17 proposals
Smith certainly checks the scholarship box. He has published two recent books, Political Economy of Public Pensions (2021) and Money and the Rule of Law: Generality and Predictability in Monetary Institutions (2021), both co-authored for Cambridge University Press. The Michigan native previously served as associate director of the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy at Troy University, where he helped establish a master’s in Economics.
MTSU already boasts both Ph.D. and M.A. graduate degrees in the Jennings A. Jones College of Business, which houses PERI jointly with the University Honors College.
“Universities must utilize their intellectual capital and resources to help answer key questions facing our society,” said David Urban, dean of the Jones College. “For example, faculty and students in PERI investigate myriad ways in which free market principles can impact societal well-being.
“Several years ago, I started the process to create PERI, in part because I believed MTSU should have a seat at the table when lawmakers need sound advice for economic policy decisions. In just a few short years, PERI has already developed a national reputation for the quality and impact of its research."
SPREADING THE MESSAGE
In the marketplace, PERI issues public policy studies; hosts debates and lectures; has built strong social media platforms; provides a vibrant voice to media editorial pages such as the Wall Street Journal and The Hill; and is adding to a growing bookshelf of publications. A new book project, The Ill-Gotten Gains of Crony One-Percenters, is underway with a $15,000 grant from the Institute for Humane Studies.
At its core, the institute is a “privately funded, student-centered MTSU institution, with a mission of engaging undergraduate and graduate students with faculty in both teaching and research that will further the understanding of free market, business, and economic principles, as well as their impact on regional, national, and international financial conditions and the well-being of society,” Smith said. “That is a mission that transcends politics.”
Seed money to help establish the institute came from a $3.5 million grant from the Charles Koch Foundation, dispersed over several years. Ongoing student programming is made possible by the generous support of private donors, many from Tennessee, Smith explained.
“While we’re excited to partner with a diverse range of donors, it is important to note that PERI does not accept donations connected to directed research,” he said. “Faculty affiliated with PERI have complete academic freedom and are expected to meet the rigorous standards of academic integrity."
To honor the late great Buchanan, PERI in 2019 also hosted an academic conference to celebrate the centennial birthday of the alumnus and Nobel laureate whose scholarship inspired its very creation.
Smith said the conference, which attracted top scholars in political economy from places like Duke University, New York University, King’s College London (England), and Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, provided “an intellectual foundation” for PERI to build upon.
SCHOLAR FACTORY
PERI’s 2020–21 annual report reveals the institute’s sizable investment in MTSU students, as well. If producing young scholars in the field of economics is the measurement, the joint venture forged between the Honors College and the Jones College of Business to create PERI is in high gear.
Since the institute was founded in 2016, the strength and success of PERI’s graduate programming has attracted Ph.D. candidates from around the country and the world. It is proof not just that the demand for economics courses is skyrocketing but that PERI is truly an institute for its time.
“Following in the example set by our faculty, our research fellows are publishing in prestigious academic outlets, prepared to be dynamic teachers in the classroom and active scholars in the field of political economy,” Smith said.
Emilia Suggs is one such scholar. Suggs holds the distinction of being the first PERI research fellow to earn her doctoral degree at MTSU, in 2020–21. She is now an assistant professor of economics at King University in Bristol, Tennessee.
Suggs, whose research focuses on political economy and voting system design, was recently published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
“The PERI center expects excellence in research and teaching from its faculty, students, and staff,” said Suggs, who also earned her Economics master’s and bachelor’s degrees at MTSU. “From day one, they encourage their students to think critically and creatively about the world and to do research of value to others."
A FITTING HOME
Globally renowned constitutional scholar John Vile, dean of MTSU’s Honors College—the first created in Tennessee—said PERI and the Honors College are “strongly committed to scholarship.”
PERI and the Honors College share another strong connection: namely, their respective ties to Buchanan.
Within the economics discipline, Buchanan’s contribution is known as the field of public choice, which brings the tools of economic analysis to the study of public decision-making.
Daniel J. Smith, PERI director
MTSU's scholarship program named in his honor to recognize top students, originally known as Buchanan Scholars, was created in 1997. When addressing the first recipients, he shared these words of encouragement: “Economics, the discipline that was to become my scientific home, requires expository writing skills, logical structures of analysis, and a grounding in ultimate reality. And political economy, the branch of moral philosophy from which economics springs, requires philosophical coherence. I came away from Middle Tennessee with all of these.”
In 2006, MTSU established the Buchanan Fellowship program in the University Honors College, intended to attract top scholars from across the state and country.
“One of the reasons Dr. James M. Buchanan was so supportive of the Honors College was because all students who graduate from the college write a thesis,” Vile said. “Dr. Smith, Dr. [Ennio] Piano, and others working with PERI have been a godsend in assisting students from the Honors College who are preparing their theses, and we anticipate this will have a positive, long-term impact.”
Nobel winner and MTSU alumnus James M. Buchanan
Piano and fellow faculty member Steven Sprick Schuster are both highly engaged assistant professors in Economics and the Honors College. Other MTSU faculty affiliated with PERI who participate in collaborative research initiatives include E. Anthon Eff, Nour Kattih, and Adam Rennhoff (Economics and Finance); Michael Federici and Andrei Korobkov (Political Science and International Relations); Tammy Waymire (Accounting); Justin Gardner (Agriculture); and Ben Stickle (Criminal Justice Administration).
Joining the dynamic PERI lineup in the 2021–22 academic year are affiliated faculty Walker Todd, an attorney for 20 years who was associated with the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Cleveland; Bryan Caplan, a New York Times best-selling author and professor of economics at George Mason; and Louis Rouanet, an assistant professor of economics at Western Kentucky University who earned his Ph.D. from George Mason.
“PERI has had nothing short of a transformative effect on the Economics and Finance Department of the Jones School of Business and the University as a whole,” Piano said. “One needs only to look at the research output of its associate faculty across several departments on campus to see the growing, positive impact PERI is having at MTSU.”
Undergraduate students can apply for research fellowships awarded by PERI on a competitive basis.
Looking toward the future, one of the foundational tenets on which Smith will continue to build PERI is making sure students have a deep well of ideas from which to draw as young scholars.
“Advancing our understanding of what drives human well-being, it is important to create a vibrant, and diverse, intellectual atmosphere where productive dialogue, critical thinking, and learning can occur,” he said.
“Students at MTSU should read and seriously engage the works of scholars such as Karl Marx, John Rawls, and G.A. Cohen, but they should also have the opportunity to study the works of Adam Smith, F.A. Hayek, and Robert Nozick.”
In the end, the work of PERI enables MTSU students of all viewpoints to engage in conversations that will strengthen their critical thinking skills and help them learn to come to their own informed worldviews. And that is sure to produce dividends far beyond MTSU’s campus walls.
