Ben Strickland | Collegian
Senior Jack Shannon recently won the American Enterprise Institute’s 2015-2016 Young Scholars Award for his economics honors thesis, which is about the theory of “just price.”
Shannon is one of four college students to receive the honor, which includes a $5,000 scholarship and invitation to AEI’s annual spring dinner. Shannon also will defend his thesis before a panel in Washington, D.C.
Meredith Schultz, Program Manager of AEI’s Values and Capitalism division, which gave out the awards, said Shannon’s thorough research and unique approach distinguished his thesis.
“Jack’s application demonstrated superior understanding of economic principles and a record of high-quality research in previous projects,” Schultz said. “His research proposal for this award was creative and interdisciplinary — including personal translations of primary sources — and showed the potential to contribute new ideas to this field of research.”
As part of his award application, Shannon submitted a prospectus of his thesis project and a statement about his views on free enterprise.
“[We looked for] demonstrated academic achievement, significant promise in their field of research, and commitment to principles of liberty, individual opportunity, and free enterprise,” Schultz said.
Shannon’s thesis is about the theory of “just price.” The topic’s controversy centers on whether the just price is objectively found in nature or more subjectively determined by the market. As a major part of his research, Shannon is translating selections from medieval Scholastic Domingo Banez’s 1594 work “Decisions on Right and Justice” from Latin into English.
Assistant Professor of History Matthew Gaetano, one of Shannon’s thesis advisers, said he thinks Shannon’s research is significant.
“For me, this is extremely exciting because very few people in the English-speaking world have tackled Banez’s views of any political questions,” he said. “Most people think of how the scholastics forbade usury, but the issue of the just price has not been studied as extensively.”
Shannon said he believes his project could have significant implications because it deals with the issue of morality and
the market.
“This project isn’t offering a specific policy proposal; it’s offering something that changes the terms of the debate about policy proposals across the board,” Shannon said. He added that he wants his thesis to bring together positive and normative economics — economics that has to do with “what is” and “what ought to be.”
“We’re very concerned with morality in economics,” he said.
So is AEI. Schultz said the Values and Capitalism division wants to promote dialogue about morality and the market.
“V&C’s purpose in offering this award is to encourage undergraduates to engage in high-quality research and exposition with the goal of advancing a moral case for free enterprise as the most effective way to bring about a just and flourishing society,” she said.
Shannon said he believes his Hillsdale classes have shaped his understanding of the integration of morality and the market.
“A narrow education in quantitative analysis isn’t going to prepare you for that,” Shannon said. “You can’t do the actual synthesis because we have this broad core education. We’re used to talking about one thing in terms of another. We have a very broad vocabulary that has the potential to speak across disciplines.”
Gaetano agreed and said Shannon’s ability to double-major in Economics and Latin as well as his exposure to a broad scope of ancient and medieval texts in the core curriculum helped him with this particular project.
“I think this project comes out of Jack’s continuing reflections on how to think about the relationship of classical views of the moral life and modern, pluralistic society,” he said. “He’s a real model of what a Hillsdale education is about.”