Lessons for the Young Economist

One of the Mises Institute’s bestselling and most downloaded books is Dr. Robert Murphy’s Lessons for the Young Economist. Murphy builds economics from the ground up with a clear and engaging style, presenting the ideas in a way young students can understand without diluting or “dumbing down” the material.

This course is based on Murphy’s text. It includes lecture videos by Dr. Jonathan Newman, presentation slides, and a short quiz for each chapter. There are also supplemental interviews with Austrian scholars on topics like the economics of prohibition, entrepreneurship, and money. There’s even an interview with Dr. Murphy!

Intended for high schoolers, the goal of this course is to provide everything teachers and homeschool families need to introduce their students to the fascinating world of economics and provide a solid foundation of basic economic principles.

Readings

The textbook for this course is Lessons for the Young Economist by Robert P. Murphy. There is also a teacher’s manual to accompany the student textbook.

Instructor

Dr. Jonathan Newman is a Fellow at the Mises Institute. He earned his PhD at Auburn University while a Research Fellow at the Mises Institute. He was the recipient of the 2021 Gary G. Schlarbaum Award to a Promising Young Scholar for Excellence in Research and Teaching. Previously, he was Associate Professor of Economics and Finance at Bryan College. He has published in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics and in volumes edited by Matthew McCaffrey and Per Bylund. His research focuses on Austrian economics, inflation and business cycles, and the history of economic thought. He is the author of two children’s books: The Broken Window and Ludwig the Builder.