March 14, 2024

Wheeling University Professor Younkins to Present at Economics Research Conference

WHEELING, W.Va., March 14 – Dr. Edward Younkins, professor of Accountancy and Business at Wheeling University, will give the opening lecture at the Mises Institute’s Austrian Economics Research Conference on March 21 in Auburn, Alabama.

Dr. Younkins, Wheeling class of 1970, will present the Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture at the conference entitled, “Ayn Rand and the Austrian Economists.” The Austrian Economics Research Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian school, bringing together leading scholars doing research in this vibrant and influential intellectual tradition.

“I am excited to give this talk on Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, and Murray Rothbard, and how their ideas may be complementary to the essential ideas of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism,” Dr. Younkins said. “This is quite an honor to deliver this lecture, which I hope those attending the conference, will find insightful and educational.”

He plans to discuss “some of Menger’s key ideas while comparing them with those of Ayn Rand. I will then repeat this process with the fundamental ideas of Mises and Rothbard. My conclusion will offer an overall assessment with respect to the potential compatibility Austrian economics and Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism.”

Younkins, who has taught at Wheeling for more than 50 years, is also the executive director of Institute for the Study of Capitalism and Morality, and the founder of the university’s undergraduate major in Political and Economic Philosophy. Additionally, he is the founding director of the school’s Master of Business (MBA) and Master of Science in Accountancy (MSA) programs. He earned a Ph.D. in Accountancy from the University of Mississippi. Dr. Younkins also received the Outstanding Educator Award in 1997 from the West Virginia Society of CPAs. The author of numerous articles in accounting and business journals, Dr. Younkins has authored or edited a dozen books including his trilogy of books on freedom and flourishing: Capitalism and Commerce, Champions of a Free Society, and Flourishing and Happiness in a Free Society.