Peter J. Boettke has taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses at George Mason University. For information on the specific courses Boettke is teaching this semester, to register for a class, or if you have additional questions, please visit the Mason Economics Department website.
Graduate Courses
Undergraduate Courses
ECON895:
Economic Sociology I
A survey in the developments in the field of economic sociology. Special emphasis is placed on the analytical puzzles that emerge from the issue of embeddedness at the individual actor, firm, market structure, and political economy levels. All action is within a context, and we will explore the nature in which the institutional context of decision affects individual action and social interaction.
Part of the Economic Sociology field, which is an approach to analyzing economic phenomena that focuses on the social causes and consequences of economic actions and outcomes. It is a vibrant field of study that exists at the intersection of economics and sociology. These classes will explore the writings of the key thinkers in the development of the field (e.g. Weber, Polanyi, Marx) alongside more contemporary advances in field (e.g. by Coleman, Granovetter, Swedberg, Zelizer).
ECON880:
The Theory of the Market Process I
This course will be organized around the theme of the Austrian School of Economics as developed by Israel Kirzner in the second half of the 20th century. We will be utilizing several selections from Kirzner’s Collected Works to frame our discussion of the modern and contemporary Austrian School. The Austrian School of Economics can be usefully thought of as consisting of 4 periods. The founding period will be represented by Carl Menger, Eugen Bohm-Bawerk and Frederic Wieser. The development phase will be represented by Ludwig von Mises, Joseph Schumpeter and F. A. Hayek. The modern phase will be Murray Rothbard, Israel Kirzner and Ludwig Lachmann. And, the contemporary period will be represented by the work of Don Lavoie, Mario Rizzo, Lawrence White and others.
econ 695:
Comparative economic systems
Capitalism, socialism, and corporatism historical perspective. Includes examination of economies of representative contemporary countries.
econ 676:
Comparative economic systems
Capitalism, socialism, and corporatism historical perspective. Includes examination of economies of representative contemporary countries.
econ 380:
Economies in Transition
Political economists stress the technical economic principles that one must understand in order to assess alternative arrangements for promoting peaceful cooperation and productive specialization among free men. Yet political economists go further and frankly try to bring out into the open the philosophical issues that necessarily underlie all discussions of the appropriate functions of government and all proposed economic policy measures.