CEI Presents 2020 Simon Award to Economist Steven Horwitz
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute presents its annual Julian L. Simon Memorial Award
Dr. Steven Horwitz, Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise at Ball State University, as the 2020 award winner. Starting in 2001, CEI pays annual tribute to an individual whose work supports the late economist Julian Simon’s vision of mankind as the ultimate resource.
“I am deeply honored by this award because Julian Simon’s optimism about humanity and its future has been a major source of inspiration for my own work,” said Professor Steve Horwitz. “I am proud to join the impressive list of previous winners and grateful to the Competitive Enterprise Institute for this recognition.”
“CEI celebrates the joy of improving the lives of others through the Julian L. Simon award,” said CEI President Kent Lassman. “Professor Steve Horwitz exemplifies the reasoned optimism of world that can be made better through ingenuity, cooperation, and exchange.”
WHAT: Julian L. Simon Memorial Award
WHEN: Wednesday, September 30, 2020, 12:00 – 1:00 pm ET
WHO:
Steven Horwitz, Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise, Ball State University and 2020 Julian Simon Awardee
Kent Lassman, President, Competitive Enterprise Institute
REGISTER: https://cei-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_m5PZFdZ6RlmYJAKgYug5yQ
Registration confirmation and event reminder emails will be sent from CEI Events at [email protected]
QUESTIONS: [email protected]
Steven Horwitz is the Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise in the Department of Economics at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. A member of the Mont Pelerin Society, he has a PhD in Economics from George Mason University and an AB in Economics and Philosophy from The University of Michigan.
Horwitz is the author of four books, Monetary Evolution, Free Banking, and Economic Order (Westview, 1992), Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective (Routledge, 2000), Hayek’s Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), and Austrian Economics: An Introduction (Libertarianism.org, 2020). He has written extensively on Austrian economics, Hayekian political economy, monetary theory and history, and American economic history. His work has been published in professional journals such as History of Political Economy, Southern Economic Journal, and The Cambridge Journal of Economics.
Horwitz is also an Affiliated Senior Scholar at the Mercatus Center in Arlington, VA, a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute in Canada, and a distinguished scholar at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has done public policy research for the Mercatus Center, Heartland Institute, and the Cato Institute, and has been a guest on several radio and cable TV shows. Horwitz has spoken to professional, student, policymaker, and general audiences throughout North America, as well as in Europe, Asia, and South America.
Prior to Ball State, he taught for 28 years at St. Lawrence University in New York, where he is Professor of Economics Emeritus.
Julian L. Simon Memorial Award
Julian L. Simon (1932-1998) was an economist and business professor known for his optimism about mankind and the future. His groundbreaking research demonstrated how human ingenuity can support the world’s increasing population with decreasing impact on the environment. Simon authored the 1981 classic The Ultimate Resource, which debunked eco-doomsayers’ predictions that modern civilization is unsustainable. Over the years, he argued that humans are living longer, resources are more abundant, and environmental quality is improving.
To honor Simon’s achievements, CEI established the Julian L. Simon Memorial Award in 2001. The recipient of the prize is an individual whose work continues to promote the vision of man as the ultimate resource. The distinguished cadre of past honorees include most recently, Johan Norberg, Hernando de Soto, Dr. Pierre Desrochers, Dr. Bruce Yandle, Dr. Vernon Smith, and John Tierney.
The award itself is forged in the shape of a leaf. Simon admired nature and included dried leaves—which die every fall and are renewed every spring—in his correspondence. The veins of the leaf are chromium, copper, nickel, tin, and tungsten—the five metals featured in the famous 1980 bet with The Population Bomb doomsayer Paul Ehrlich. Based on his positive theory about natural resources, Simon bet Ehrlich the price of the metals would decline over a decade even if the world’s population grew. Ten years later, Julian Simon won the bet.