Welcome to the Henry George Chair in Economics at The Peter J. Tobin College of Business
This endowed position was created in 1981 with a grant from the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. The aim of the initiative was to popularize the work of the 19th-century American political economist Henry George, who advocated for progress and broad social development. This chair position was established to support, reward, and encourage scholarly activities that express his spirit.
Since then the position has been held by Dr. Northrup Buechner (between 1981-1991); Dr. Joseph A. Giacallone, (between 1991-2019) and is held by Dr. Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan (since January 2019).
A Message from Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan, Ph.D., Henry George Chair in Economics
Henry George’s ideas, most famously laid out in his Progress and Poverty in 1879, go far beyond the popular version of his single-land-tax proposal. His ingenuity was to bring into the popular discourse some of the difficult topics of the time that continue to resonate in our society. At the dawn of the progressive era, as income inequality worsened, George commented on individual deprivation in the background of industrialization and double-digit economic growth. From an applied perspective, he appealed to the ideas of common good and justice in a society where the government would act to minimize structural obstacles to individual freedom and progress. Henry George, the self-taught economist, carried those ideals through his journalistic and political careers.
The significance of Henry George's influence does not escape the purview of economists and policy makers today.
The core of the economic policy questions raised by Henry George routinely appear in my research and in the work of my colleagues. In the context of New York City, home to St. John’s University, problems of paid sick leave across small businesses, efficient public transportation systems, regulation of natural monopolies, use of urban space, the economic role of the government, and a great many other questions pertaining to ensuring sustainable living in a modern metropolitan area continue to influence our teaching and applied research.
Register to attend the Spring 2025 Henry George Lecture
Join us Monday, February 10, at St. John's University with Branko Milanovic discussing his new book "Visions of Inequity."
The Henry George Lecture Series
Since 1981, The Henry George Lecture Series has welcomed thought leaders to campus to explore relevant topics in economics.
Spring 2025 Henry George Lecture: Branko Milanovic
2pm Monday, February 10, 2025
D'Angelo Center 206
Branko Milanovic presents his new book "Visions of Inequality" that looks at how the most important economists of the past two centuries (Francois Quesnay, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Vilfredo Pareto, and Simon Kuznets) have thought of forces that shape income distribution. He also discusses more recent developments that, after a period of disinterest in income inequality in the second half of the twentieth century, have led to a significant revival in inequality studies.
Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, Norway's current Finance Minister and a prominent politician, shared his expertise and insights about "Norway’s Historical Experience with Taxing and Regulating the Exploitation of Its Natural Resources," on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, with students, faculty, and members of the press at the Manhattan campus of St. John's University.
Read St. John's news story of lecture and to view a recording of the livestream, please visit https://youtu.be/fpuGJYBYr9g.
Vedum is a prominent figure in Norwegian politics, having served as the Finance Minister of Norway since 2021. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Centre Party since 2005 and assumed leadership of the party in 2014. Prior to his role as Finance Minister, Vedum also served as the Minister of Agriculture and Food from 2012 to 2013.
Economist, professor, and former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in Poland's first non-communist government Leszek Balcerowicz discussed "Poland's Road to Democracy and Capitalism" on Thursday, April 11 at St. John's University.
Balcerowicz is an economist and Professor of Economics at the Warsaw School of Economics. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the first non-communist government in Poland after 1989 (1989-1991), and between 1997 and 2000; and as President of the National Bank of Poland (2001-2007). He is the recipient of numerous honors from universities and awards, including Poland’s highest decoration - Order of the White Eagle (2005) - for his contribution to the reforms in Poland (2005), as well as Milton Friedman, Ludwig Erhard and Friedrich von Hayek prizes. He is also a member of the Group of Thirty and the Founder and Chairman of the Council of a Warsaw-based think tank, Civil Development Forum.
View a recording of the Spring 2024 Henry George Lecture here.
Labor economist and nationally recognized expert in retirement security Teresa Ghilarducci delivered the Fall 2023 Henry George Lecture, “The False Promise of Pensions and the Creation of Surplus Labor,” on Thursday, October 12 at St. John’s University.
Dr. Teresa Ghilarducci is the Irene and Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in economic policy analysis in the Economics Department at the New School for Social Research and directs the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis that focuses on economic policy research and outreach. Her most recent book, Rescuing Retirement: A Plan to Guarantee Retirement Security for All Americans, offers solutions to the growing retirement crisis in the U.S.
View a recording of the Fall 2023 Henry George Lecture here.
Watch this event.
Barry Eichengreen, Ph.D., a leading economist working on the topics of economic history, exchange rates, international macroeconomics, reserve currencies, and sovereign debt, will present as part of the Fall 2022 Henry George Lecture on the “Evolution of the International Reserve Currency System” at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, October 27.
Dr. Eichengreen is George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent book is In Defense of Public Debt with Asmaa El-Ganainy, Rui Esteves, and Kris James Mitchener (Oxford University Press, 2021)
Edward J. Dodson delivered the Spring 2022 Henry George Lecture on the topic of "Henry George's Quest to Save Us from Ourselves" on Monday, April 25.
Mr. Dodson is a Henry George School of Social Science faculty member, author of a three-volume work titled "The Discovery of First Principles,” and founder of the online education and research project the School of Cooperative Individualism.
Watch this event.
Darrick Hamilton, Ph.D., the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, and the founding Director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School, will deliver the Fall 2021 Henry George Lecture on the topic of “The Moral Burden of Economists” on Monday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m.
Louis-Philippe Rochon, Ph.D., a specialist in fiscal and monetary policy and theory, and post-Keynesian economics, delivered the Spring 2021 Henry George Lecture on the topic of “The Income Distributive Nature of Monetary Policy” on Thursday, March 4.
Dr. Rochon is a Professor of Economics at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Ph.D., a specialist in modern monetary theory and public policy, delivered the Fall 2020 Henry George Lecture on the topic of The Case for a Job Guarantee on Monday, Nov. 16 at 2 p.m.
Dr. Tcherneva is an Associate Professor of Economics and a Research Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.
Esther Duflo, Ph.D., a co-winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her experimental approach to alleviating global poverty, delivered the Fall 2019 Henry George Lecture on the topic of "Good Economics for Hard Times."
Dr. Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
2019
Steven Pressman, Professor of Economics at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO.
A Wealth Tax to Reduce Inequality?
2018
Clifford Thies, Professor of Economics and Finance at Shenandoah University
Liberty and Private Charity
2017
Edward O’Donnell, Professor of History at Holy Cross College
Henry George and the Gilded Age
2016
James Heckman, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and Nobel Prize Winner (2000)
Social Mobility and Inequality
2014
James Galbraith, Professor of Government at the University of Texas
The End of Normal: A Perspective on the Great Crisis Six Years Later
2009
Edmund Phelps, Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University and Nobel Prize Winner (2006)
Understanding the Financial Crisis
2007
Benjamin M. Friedman, Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University
The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth
2006
Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia University
Globalization’s Critics: Why they are Wrong
2005
Kenneth Greene, Professor of Economics at Binghamton University
If He is “Economic” Man, Why Is he so Good?
2003
Joseph Stiglitz, Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Nobel Prize Winner (2001)
Globalization and its Discontents
2001
Walter Cadette
Financing Health Care: There is a Better Way
2000
Michael Hudson, Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri - Kansas City
Is Finance Capitalism Destroying Industrial Capitalism?
1999
Edward Gramlich, Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan
Reforming Social Security
Jeff Gates
Shared Capitalism in the 21st Century
1998
Peter Boettke, Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University
Russia’s Economic Crisis: The Perils of a Post-Soviet Transition
Laurence Moss, Professor of Economics at Babson College
The Contributions of Henry George and Paul Krugman to the Free Trade Debate
1997
Dick Netzer, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at NYU
Land Value Taxation: What Economists Still Need to Know
Nicolaus Tideman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University
Peace, Justice, and Economic Reform
1996
Mancur Olson, Jr., Professor of Economics at Princeton University and the University of Maryland
Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships
Douglass C. North, Professor of Economics at the University of Washington, Rice University, and Cambridge University and Nobel Prize Winner (1993)
Order and Disorder in Economic Change
1995
Israel M. Kirzner, Professor of Economics at NYU
Role of Entrepreneurship in Economic Understanding
1994
Lawrence R. Klein, Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and Nobel Prize Winner (1980)
Forecasting in a Corporate Environment: Problems and Solutions
Merton Miller, Professor at the University of Chicago and Nobel Prize Winner (1990)
US-Japanese Trade Relations
1993
James Dawsey, Professor of Religious Studies at Emory & Henry College
Liberation Theology and Economic Development
Homa Motamen-Scobie
Trade and Financial Relationships: US and Europe
1992
Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University
Economic Reform in Eastern Europe
Gary S. Becker, Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago and Nobel Prize Winner (1992)
Education, Labor Force Quality, and the Economy
1991
William Vickrey, Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Nobel Prize Winner (1996)
Land, Rent, and Public Services
James Miller III, Senior Fellow at George Mason University and Stanford University
Washington's Budget Crisis and How to Solve It
1990
James Buchanan, Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia, UCLA, Virginia Tech and George
Mason University and Nobel Prize Winner (1986)
Economics and the Ethics of Idleness
Wassily Leontief, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and NYU and Nobel Prize Winner (1973)
The Present State of Economic Science
1989
William J. Baumol, Professor of Economics at Princeton University
The Long Run Productivity Record: The U.S. Isn't Doing So Badly
1988
Mason Gaffney, Professor of Economics at University of California, Riverside
How to Revive a Dead City
Karl Brunner, Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester
Issues in Monetarism
1987
Robert Andelson, Philosophy Professor at Auburn University
The Earth is the Lord's
Lawrence White, Professor of Economics at NYU
Completing the Financial Revolution: The Case for Free Banking
1986
Peter F. Bauer, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics
The Case Against Foreign Aid
Robert Hessen, Professor of Business at Stanford University
The Paradox of Socialism's Continued Popularity
1985
Daniel Holland, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Collecting Taxes Without Hurting Incentives
Block, Coyne, Gaskell
Perspectives on the Property Tax: A Panel Discussion
1984
Malcolm Gillis, Professor of Economics at Rice University
Flat Rate Taxes: A Case Study in Practical Application
Yale Brozen, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago
Politics versus Prosperity
1983
Frank Genovese, Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia
America's Economic Problems
1982
Leland Yeager, Professor of Economics at Auburn University and the University of Virginia
Henry George and Austrian Economics
C.Lowell Harris, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University
Messages that Survive a Century: Henry George in the 1980's
1981
Oscar Johannsen
The Economic Philosophy of Henry George