The [Harvard] College’s fourth most popular course, Economics 1017: “A Libertarian Perspective on Economic and Social Policy,” saw a significant jump in enrollment to 497 undergraduates from 251 undergraduates last year. Economics senior lecturer Jeffrey A. Miron, who teaches Ec 1017, attributed the course’s jump in popularity to the current election cycle, which has seen Libertarian presidential candidate Gary E. Johnson in the spotlight and rising in the polls.
Miron said topics in the course, like the immigration policy and the legalization of drugs in the context of economics, have attracted students during this year’s presidential campaign–which has featured candidates with significantly varying styles and ideologies.
“These are all things that are discussed actively in the political stage, and I think lots of people are interested to be hearing different perspectives,” Miron said.
This is from Ashley J. Kim, “Ec. Surpasses Computer Science in College’s Fall Enrollment,” Harvard Crimson, September 12.
HT2 Greg Mankiw.
READER COMMENTS
Daniel Klein
Sep 12 2016 at 11:24pm
Good news indeed. Hats off to Jeff Miron!
Keith
Sep 13 2016 at 12:31am
Mirron recorded a series of short related lectures for the folks at libertarianism.org. Here’s the link:
http://www.libertarianism.org/guides/libertarian-public-policy
For lecture notes, here’s the reading list of the course:
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k45102&pageid=icb.page205642
GregS
Sep 13 2016 at 9:36am
This is great. They couldn’t have picked a better guy to teach it. Jeff Miron’s “Drug War Crimes” is truly excellent. It’s just such a clear, readable presentation of policy analysis. Ostensibly about drug policy, the book actually teaches the reader how to do a cost-benefit analysis about *any* kind of policy. Sneaky! I’m sure his students will get a healthy dose of that lesson.
I’m also happy to see that young people are showing more interest in libertarian ideas.
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