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Jeffrey Miron        

Economics & Libertarianism Scholar, Senior Lecturer & Director at Harvard University

Dr. Jeffrey Miron is a scholar on economic policy and libertarianism. He is Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, and he also serves as Director of Economics Studies at the Cato Institute.

Dr. Miron's commentary on economic policy has appeared on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR, Bloomberg, Fox, BBC, and dozens of other television, radio, and print media around the world.

He also has been published widely in both scholarly journals and media outlets such as CNN.com, nytimes.com and forbes.com.

Dr. Miron's area of expertise is the economics of libertarianism. He has written extensively on the economic case against drug prohibition, and he has been a vocal critic of the Treasury bailout and the Obama administration's fiscal stimulus.

Dr. Miron is also a renowned educator. The Senior Class at Harvard has chosen him four times as one of their favorite teachers—his most popular offering is a course titled "A Libertarian Perspective on Economic and Social Policy," which has attracted more than nine hundred students over ten years.

Dr. Miron has previously served on the faculty of the University of Michigan, as well as Boston University where he was a department chairman for six years. He holds a B.A. in economics from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T.

Speech Topics

Obamanomics: Growing the Pie or Dividing the Pie?

Since President Obama took office in January 2009, his administration has pursued a broad range of economic policies. The purported goal has been to make the economy work better, such as by ending the recession, stabilizing the housing market, or reforming health care. Thus, the policies claim to expand the economic pie, not just redistribute ownership. In this talk, Dr. Jeffrey Miron argues that the reality is different. He explores the design of the fiscal stimulus and other economic policies, making his assertion that they've largely been inimical to productivity and growth.

The Economic Case for Legalizing Drugs

Most societies outlaw drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Mainstream political discussion rarely challenges this policy, but Dr. Jeffrey Miron argues that theory and evidence both indicate that drug prohibition causes far more harm than drug use itself. In this talk, Dr. Miron explores what he calls “the economic case for legalizing drugs,” which argues that a better approach is the one currently employed for alcohol and tobacco: legalize but use sin taxation, age restrictions, and related policies to moderate the unwanted consequences of drugs.

Libertarianism, from A to Z: The Case for Consequential Libertarianism

Modern political debate is dominated by the liberal and conservative perspectives. Many people, however, find both views to be awkward and inconsistent. In this talk, Dr. Jeffrey Miron discusses consequential libertarianism, which asserts that most policies favored by the left and the right are counterproductive. Dr. Miron argues that government should scale back or eliminate its interventions regarding vice, poverty, regulation, education, foreign affairs, discrimination, guns, abortion, gay marriage, and more. In this compelling presentation from of the nations leading economic scholars, Dr. Miron explores this socially liberal and fiscally conservative perspective that he describes as taking “government out of people’s bedrooms and out of their wallets.”

News

Jeffrey A. Miron
Jeffrey A. Miron is Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard University and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute.

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