The theory of a free market economy - an economy free from government intervention - is one that Texas Tech's aptly named Free Market Institute promotes through research, courses, and speakers at Texas Tech.
Eduardo Segarra, a member of the institute's board of directors and a professor of agricultural and applied economics at Texas Tech, said the Free Market Institute's main goal is education.
"The purpose of the institute is really academics, research, and community knowledge enhancement," Segarra said. "Across the spectrum. So any institution or any unit within the university, first and foremost, attention should be to education and enhancing academics, enhancing knowledge."
The three-year-old program, started with a $2 million donation from San Angelo-area rancher and Texas Tech grad Matt Brown, began with goals of teaching young people the virtues of capitalism and a private enterprise society. Segarra said the 2008 government bailout and subsequent political actions have raised the issue of free markets, and said Brown felt Texas Tech was the right place for the study of free markets.
"In the last decade, there has been a more proactive sense of government intervention," Segarra said.
Ben Powell, the founder and director of the institute, said their studies have a direct tie to events in the news that have an effect on markets and societies, both nationally and internationally.
One is on the origins of economic freedom and prosperity. We know a lot about how a free society tends to be more prosperous. We know a lot less about how a society that’s less free becomes more free. So what we’re studying, then, is the kind of social change dynamics that leads a country to kind of alter its path and embrace free markets and freedom more generally," Powell said. "Then the other project that we recently finished is an immigration research project that is looking at what the economic, fiscal, cultural impact of immigration is, and comparing various policy proposals in light of the social science on that question."
Segarra said the Free Market Institute has set lofty goals for itself, and is already gaining recognition from economics study powerhouses like George Mason University, of which Powell is a graduate.
"I’ve been at Texas Tech a little over 27 years, this is my 28th year. We have done great things in the past, but this thing – believe me, it’s going to be much bigger, and it’s going to be good."
