UK Gatton College of Business and Economics
 

Our Next Event

“Hidden Debt, Hidden Deficits: How Pension Promises are Swallowing Government Budgets, and What Can Be Done”
A conversation with Stanford pension expert Joshua D. Rauh

October 18, 2017
5:30pm to 6:30pm

Gatton 307 - Woodward Hall

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About Us

The John H. Schnatter Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise is dedicated to understanding the role that markets play in the economy and in society. The Institute’s mission is to generate intellectually rigorous research and an open dialogue to discover and understand how free enterprise affects peoples’ lives and the well-being of society.

Current Research

Modern Politics and the Passions

David Bradshaw

Dr. Bradshaw explores today’s political, social and moral divides with reference to the works of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Finding that behind these ideas are destructive forms of thinking and feeling, Bradshaw argues that to unify requires returning to the classical disciplines imbedded in Plato, Aristotle and the Christian ideal of educating the passions.

Single Bidders and Tacit Collusion in Highway Procurement Auctions

David Barrus, Frank Scott

Kentucky spent over $590 million between 2005 and 2007 on asphalt paving projects. Barrus and Scott analyzed companies’ choices to bid and how much to bid in that period to explore the affect that varying levels of competition had on the price the Commonwealth paid. With a majority of contracts attracting only one bidder these projects cost the Commonwealth between 9.3% and 16.5% more than projects with additional bidders.

Transaction Complexity and the Movement to Fair Value Accounting

Pinky Rusli, Xinlei Zhao, David A. Ziebart

As technology becomes more complex, business transactions and accounting standards both become more complex. But do accounting standards need to match the complexity of business transactions? Rusli, Zhao and Ziebart find that accounting standards can be simpler if they rely on market-established prices of relevant assets.

In the News

Tax and spending panel looked for answers to Kentucky’s pension crisis

UK's student paper, the Kentucky Kernel, wrote a piece covering the Schnatter Institute's event on September 7th - Tax Policy and Economic Growth in Kentucky: A Panel Discussion.

Where’s the tax reform? The noted economist who helped flip Kentucky House is frustrated

On September 7th, 2017, the Schnatter Institute hosted a tax policy panel with Dr. Arthur Laffer. The Herald-Leader discusses Dr. Laffer's ideas and includes a video from the event on their page. The panel also included UK economists Dr. Bill Hoyt and Dr. Chris Bollinger and Kentucky Center for Economic Policy's Jason Bailey.

Aaron Yelowitz to become director of Schnatter Institute

On July 5th, 2017, Gatton College Dean Blackwell announced the appointment of Dr. Aaron Yelowitz to be director of the Schnatter Institute.

Op-Ed: Kentucky health insurance market in death spiral

This op-ed by Schnatter Institute Associate Director Dr. Aaron Yelowitz was published by the Lexington Herald-Leader on May 3, 2017.

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