Society for the Development of Austrian Economics

Carl Menger Essay Contest

Carl Menger Essay Contest

The SDAE gratefully acknowledges the Charles Koch Foundation and the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University for support of the Carl Menger Essay Contest.

The SDAE also acknowledges the contributions of past contest judges and prize committee members: Michael Clark (Hillsdale College), Thomas Duncan (Radford University), Liya Palagashvili (State University of New York, Purchase College), Alexander Salter (Texas Tech University), Daniel Smith (Middle Tennessee State University), Diana Thomas (Creighton University), and Michael Thomas (Creighton University).

2024 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Presentations at the SDAE Annual Dinner and Business Meeting
Washington Hilton
Washington, DC

2023 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Presentations at the SDAE Annual Dinner and Business Meeting
New Orleans Marriott
New Orleans, LA

2022 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Presentations at the SDAE Annual Dinner and Business Meeting
Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa
Fort Lauderdale, FL

  • Organic Order
    Sebastian Anastasi, Grove City College

  • Haiti and the Dominican Republic’s Long Road to Economic Growth Divergence
    Joseph Zhong, Claremont McKenna College

  • The Marginal Effect of Institutions and Property Rights on Entrepreneurship
    Leonel Regalado Cardoso, Universidad Francisco Marroquín (Guatemala)

2021 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Presentations at the SDAE Annual Dinner and Business Meeting
Marriott Marquis Houston
Houston, TX

  • Austrian Entrepreneurship and Game Theory
    Abigail Burns and Thomas Rodgers, Hillsdale College

  • Comparing the Views of Wilhelm Röpke and F. A. Hayek on the Role of Institutions in the Maintenance of a Liberal Democratic Order
    Benjamin Kilimnik, Brown University

  • Where Did All the Women Go? Paternal Investment and Menstrual Exile in Nepal and Mali
    Hannah Wangen, St. Olaf College

2020 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Announcements during the SDAE Annual Business Meeting
Virtual Meeting

  • Rent-Seeking for Occupational Licensing: Evidence from the History of Barber Licensing in Arkansas
    Tanner Corley, University of Central Arkansas

  • Expanding Nurse Practitioners Scope of Practice and Youth Mental Health
    Zakree Massey, University of Central Arkansas

  • The Giffen Paradox Revisited
    Trieu Nguyen, Hillsdale College

2019 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Presentations at the SDAE Annual Dinner and Business Meeting
Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa
Fort Lauderdale, FL

  • The Costs of an Informed Electorate: an Examination of Local Newspapers and the Constraints They Place on Politicians
    Peter Francis Aehl, St. Olaf College

  • Constitutional Restraints and Economic Stability: Explaining Chile’s Economic Development since 1990
    Andrew Berryhill, Hillsdale College

  • Viking Grave Goods
    Adam Kaiser, St. Olaf College

2018 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Presentations at the SDAE Annual Dinner and Business Meeting
Marriott Marquis Washington DC
Washington, DC

  • The Environment or the Economy: Examining Institutional Effect on Conservation in California
    Katherine Wright, Hillsdale College

  • Spontaneous Order as Social Construction: A Social Analysis of Emergent Institutions
    Akiva Malamet, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (Israel)

  • Lobbying as a Source of Rent Seeking: Clarification of the Relationship between Corporate Lobbying and Firm Tax Benefits
    Seth Carter, Indiana University at Bloomington

2017 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Presentations at the SDAE Annual Dinner and Business Meeting
Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina
Tampa, FL

  • Does the Dismal Science Need to be Redeemed?
    Abigail Bodeau, University of Notre Dame

  • The Origins of Money: A Case Study of First Millennium BC Babylonia
    Jacob Hall, George Mason University

  • The Intervention Paradox: A Study of the Effects of International Monetary Fund Intervention on Inequality after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis
    Bhargav Sriganesh, King’s College London (United Kingdom)

2016 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Presentations at the SDAE Annual Dinner and Business Meeting
JW Marriott Washington DC
Washington, DC

  • The Role of Private Equity in Enhancing the Market for Corporate Control and Capitalism Itself
    Jack Vogel, Trinity College

  • An Economic and Institutional Analysis of Prohibition (1920-1933)
    Robert Tucker Omberg, George Mason University

  • The Debate About Key Currencies: An Austrian Perspective
    Dries Glorieux, Ghent University (Belgium)

  • Honorable Mention
    The Private/Public Distinction in Education
    Dillon Tauzin, Loyola University New Orleans

2015 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Presentations at the SDAE Annual Dinner and Business Meeting
New Orleans Marriott
New Orleans, LA

  • An American Ideology: Destutt de Tracy and Jeffersonian Economics
    Jibran Khan, King’s College London (United Kingdom)

  • Capital Theory Controversies: The Impact of the Hayek and Knight Debate
    Joshua Letta, Christopher Newport University

  • Economic Growth and Income Inequality: A Public Choice Analysis
    Michael Kotrous, Creighton University

  • Honorable Mention
    On Government Growth: Competing Ideas from Schumpeter and Cowen
    Austin Spillane, Creighton University

2014 Carl Menger Essay Contest

Award Presentation at the SDAE Annual Dinner and Business Meeting
Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Atlanta, GA

  • Soft Paternalism and Consumer Protection
    Ricardo Rosas, Philipps-Universität Marburg (Germany)

  • Jim Crow and Incarceration: Creating a Criminal Group
    Kaitlyn Woltz, Loyola University New Orleans

  • Does the Failure of the Great Leap Forward Affirm the Austrian School’s Criticisms of Socialism?
    Aidan Harkin, King’s College London (United Kingdom)