Welcome to the Henry George Chair in Economics at The Peter J. Tobin College of Business
This endowed position was created in 1981 with a grant from the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. The aim of the initiative was to popularize the work of the 19th-century American political economist Henry George, who advocated for progress and broad social development. This chair position was established to support, reward, and encourage scholarly activities that express his spirit.
Since then the position has been held by Dr. Northrup Buechner (between 1981-1991); Dr. Joseph A. Giacallone, (between 1991-2019) and is held by Dr. Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan (since January 2019).
A Message from Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan, Ph.D., Henry George Chair in Economics
Henry George’s ideas, most famously laid out in his Progress and Poverty in 1879, go far beyond the popular version of his single-land-tax proposal. His ingenuity was to bring into the popular discourse some of the difficult topics of the time that continue to resonate in our society. At the dawn of the progressive era, as income inequality worsened, George commented on individual deprivation in the background of industrialization and double-digit economic growth. From an applied perspective, he appealed to the ideas of common good and justice in a society where the government would act to minimize structural obstacles to individual freedom and progress. Henry George, the self-taught economist, carried those ideals through his journalistic and political careers.
The significance of Henry George's influence does not escape the purview of economists and policy makers today.
The core of the economic policy questions raised by Henry George routinely appear in my research and in the work of my colleagues. In the context of New York City, home to St. John’s University, problems of paid sick leave across small businesses, efficient public transportation systems, regulation of natural monopolies, use of urban space, the economic role of the government, and a great many other questions pertaining to ensuring sustainable living in a modern metropolitan area continue to influence our teaching and applied research.
The Henry George Lecture Series
Since 1981, The Henry George Lecture Series has welcomed thought leaders to campus to explore relevant topics in economics.
Cities in the Sky: What's Driving the Global Rise in Skyscrapers?
HENRY GEORGE LECTURE WELCOMED JASON M. BARR ON APRIL 14, 2025. WATCH LECTURE (Webex View, best volume) or CLASSROOM VIEW
Thought Leader in “Skynomics” Shares Skyscrapers Knowledge at Spring 2025 Henry George Lecture
An expert in urban and real estate economics discussed the global growth of skyscraper architecture and the future of tall-building construction at St. John’s University’s semiannual Henry George Lecture Series, hosted by The Peter J. Tobin College of Business on April 14.
Keynote speaker Jason M. Barr, Ph.D., Professor of Economics at Rutgers University-Newark and a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics and the Eastern Economic Journal, attempted to demystify claims related to skyscrapers while taking a deep dive into what he calls “skynomics,” or the profits behind building skyscrapers.
Dr. Barr, whose research has been featured in the Washington Post, The Economist, The New York Times, and other publications, explained that taller buildings cost more to construct per square foot as building heights grow and added materials are required for wind bracing, foundation construction, and more.
Nevertheless, skyscrapers remain a popular architectural choice in urban environments.
"What is driving the tall building craze around the world is demand,” Dr. Barr explained. “Mass urbanization is a constant trend throughout the world, and skyscrapers are an effective way to meet those demands.”
“Yet the height premium means people pay more to be on higher floors,” Dr. Barr continued. “The profit-maximizing height is one that sets the marginal cost of adding a floor equal to the marginal benefit.” The Spring 2025 Henry George lecture was delivered on the University's Queens, NY, campus and via livestream to an audience of more than 100 students and guests, including representatives from several Georgist organizations. The series pays tribute to Mr. George (1839-1897), a 19th-century American political economist who advocated for progress and social development and who believed land should be publicly owned and taxed to fund government and public services.
Dr. Barr engaged the audience in a 45-minute discussion before opening the session to questions. In answer to one question, he said tall-building development could offer a solution to housing affordability problems that have plagued municipalities such as New York City since Mr. George first delivered his message in the 19th century.
“The real issue is the lack of construction big cities face,” Dr. Barr said. “These cities have created roadblocks to rapid construction. In New York City, 92 percent of all buildings within one kilometer of a subway stop are three stories or less. You want to stop the housing affordability problem, you can turn those three-story buildings into four-, five-, and six-story buildings. If you doubled the floor space along subways lines, you would get a million housing units.”
In a light moment, Dr. Barr pointed out common misconceptions of tall-building history that many in attendance were surprised to learn. For example, Dr. Barr noted that the title of “first skyscraper” – given to the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, IL – is the product of urban legend and a battle between rival architects. “They just made up the title,” he said.
Likewise, he said the absence of skyscrapers between New York’s City’s Financial District and Midtown Manhattan is not rooted in geological considerations, but rather socioeconomic ones.
“What was driving the location of skyscrapers had nothing to do with the lack of bedrock to build on, as has been said,” Dr. Barr explained. “The reason was the middle class had moved out of the area near Washington Square Park northward to Central Park. That area became a great commercial district with shopping, and the land values were too high.” Dr. Barr was introduced by Maciek Nowak, Ph.D., Dean of the Tobin College of Business and Joseph H. and Maria C. Schwartz Distinguished Chair, and Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Economics and Finance. Dean Nowak emphasized the importance of the lecture series to the Tobin College of Business.
Since 1981, the lecture series has welcomed thought leaders to explore relevant issues in economics, including 11 Nobel Prize in Economics laureates.
“The Henry George Lecture series has drawn a lot of attention to Tobin and St. John’s, not only from students, but also from people associated with the Georgist movement,” Dean Nowak said. “Today, we are very pleased to add Dr. Barr to our list of esteemed guests.”
The Henry George Chair in Economics is an endowed position at the University launched with a grant from the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. This position was established to reward, support, and encourage scholarly activities aligned with those of Mr. George. Dr. Gevorkyan has held the Henry George Chair since 2019.
In his welcome remarks, Dr. Gervorkyan called Dr. Barr one of the leading figures in urban and real estate economics and said the University was honored to have him speak at the series.
“Dr. Barr is one of the thought leaders in urban economics and real estate economics whose research has been closely read and studied by our students here at St. John’s,” Dr. Gevorkyan said. “It is an honor to have him here today, as the Henry George Lectures are closely followed by pioneers in economics.” “In fact, 11 Nobel prize winners in economics have stopped by to share their work with our students,” Dr. Gervorkyan added. “So, you could say we tend to predict them.”
Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, Norway's current Finance Minister and a prominent politician, shared his expertise and insights about "Norway’s Historical Experience with Taxing and Regulating the Exploitation of Its Natural Resources," on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, with students, faculty, and members of the press at the Manhattan campus of St. John's University.
Read St. John's news story of lecture and view a recording of the livestream. please visit https://youtu.be/fpuGJYBYr9g.
Vedum is a prominent figure in Norwegian politics, having served as the Finance Minister of Norway since 2021. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Centre Party since 2005 and assumed leadership of the party in 2014. Prior to his role as Finance Minister, Vedum also served as the Minister of Agriculture and Food from 2012 to 2013.
Economist, professor, and former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in Poland's first non-communist government Leszek Balcerowicz discussed "Poland's Road to Democracy and Capitalism" on Thursday, April 11 at St. John's University.
Balcerowicz is an economist and Professor of Economics at the Warsaw School of Economics. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the first non-communist government in Poland after 1989 (1989-1991), and between 1997 and 2000; and as President of the National Bank of Poland (2001-2007). He is the recipient of numerous honors from universities and awards, including Poland’s highest decoration - Order of the White Eagle (2005) - for his contribution to the reforms in Poland (2005), as well as Milton Friedman, Ludwig Erhard and Friedrich von Hayek prizes. He is also a member of the Group of Thirty and the Founder and Chairman of the Council of a Warsaw-based think tank, Civil Development Forum.
View a recording of the Spring 2024 Henry George Lecture here.
Labor economist and nationally recognized expert in retirement security Teresa Ghilarducci delivered the Fall 2023 Henry George Lecture, “The False Promise of Pensions and the Creation of Surplus Labor,” on Thursday, October 12 at St. John’s University.
Dr. Teresa Ghilarducci is the Irene and Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in economic policy analysis in the Economics Department at the New School for Social Research and directs the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis that focuses on economic policy research and outreach. Her most recent book, Rescuing Retirement: A Plan to Guarantee Retirement Security for All Americans, offers solutions to the growing retirement crisis in the U.S.
View a recording of the Fall 2023 Henry George Lecture here.
Watch this event.
Barry Eichengreen, Ph.D., a leading economist working on the topics of economic history, exchange rates, international macroeconomics, reserve currencies, and sovereign debt, will present as part of the Fall 2022 Henry George Lecture on the “Evolution of the International Reserve Currency System” at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, October 27.
Dr. Eichengreen is George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent book is In Defense of Public Debt with Asmaa El-Ganainy, Rui Esteves, and Kris James Mitchener (Oxford University Press, 2021)
Edward J. Dodson delivered the Spring 2022 Henry George Lecture on the topic of "Henry George's Quest to Save Us from Ourselves" on Monday, April 25.
Mr. Dodson is a Henry George School of Social Science faculty member, author of a three-volume work titled "The Discovery of First Principles,” and founder of the online education and research project the School of Cooperative Individualism.
Watch this event.
Darrick Hamilton, Ph.D., the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, and the founding Director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School, will deliver the Fall 2021 Henry George Lecture on the topic of “The Moral Burden of Economists” on Monday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m.
Louis-Philippe Rochon, Ph.D., a specialist in fiscal and monetary policy and theory, and post-Keynesian economics, delivered the Spring 2021 Henry George Lecture on the topic of “The Income Distributive Nature of Monetary Policy” on Thursday, March 4.
Dr. Rochon is a Professor of Economics at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Ph.D., a specialist in modern monetary theory and public policy, delivered the Fall 2020 Henry George Lecture on the topic of The Case for a Job Guarantee on Monday, Nov. 16 at 2 p.m.
Dr. Tcherneva is an Associate Professor of Economics and a Research Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.
Esther Duflo, Ph.D., a co-winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her experimental approach to alleviating global poverty, delivered the Fall 2019 Henry George Lecture on the topic of "Good Economics for Hard Times."
Dr. Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
2019
Steven Pressman, Professor of Economics at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO.
A Wealth Tax to Reduce Inequality?
2018
Clifford Thies, Professor of Economics and Finance at Shenandoah University
Liberty and Private Charity
2017
Edward O’Donnell, Professor of History at Holy Cross College
Henry George and the Gilded Age
2016
James Heckman, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and Nobel Prize Winner (2000)
Social Mobility and Inequality
2014
James Galbraith, Professor of Government at the University of Texas
The End of Normal: A Perspective on the Great Crisis Six Years Later
2009
Edmund Phelps, Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University and Nobel Prize Winner (2006)
Understanding the Financial Crisis
2007
Benjamin M. Friedman, Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University
The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth
2006
Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia University
Globalization’s Critics: Why they are Wrong
2005
Kenneth Greene, Professor of Economics at Binghamton University
If He is “Economic” Man, Why Is he so Good?
2003
Joseph Stiglitz, Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Nobel Prize Winner (2001)
Globalization and its Discontents
2001
Walter Cadette
Financing Health Care: There is a Better Way
2000
Michael Hudson, Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri - Kansas City
Is Finance Capitalism Destroying Industrial Capitalism?
1999
Edward Gramlich, Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan
Reforming Social Security
Jeff Gates
Shared Capitalism in the 21st Century
1998
Peter Boettke, Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University
Russia’s Economic Crisis: The Perils of a Post-Soviet Transition
Laurence Moss, Professor of Economics at Babson College
The Contributions of Henry George and Paul Krugman to the Free Trade Debate
1997
Dick Netzer, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at NYU
Land Value Taxation: What Economists Still Need to Know
Nicolaus Tideman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University
Peace, Justice, and Economic Reform
1996
Mancur Olson, Jr., Professor of Economics at Princeton University and the University of Maryland
Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships
Douglass C. North, Professor of Economics at the University of Washington, Rice University, and Cambridge University and Nobel Prize Winner (1993)
Order and Disorder in Economic Change
1995
Israel M. Kirzner, Professor of Economics at NYU
Role of Entrepreneurship in Economic Understanding
1994
Lawrence R. Klein, Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and Nobel Prize Winner (1980)
Forecasting in a Corporate Environment: Problems and Solutions
Merton Miller, Professor at the University of Chicago and Nobel Prize Winner (1990)
US-Japanese Trade Relations
1993
James Dawsey, Professor of Religious Studies at Emory & Henry College
Liberation Theology and Economic Development
Homa Motamen-Scobie
Trade and Financial Relationships: US and Europe
1992
Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University
Economic Reform in Eastern Europe
Gary S. Becker, Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago and Nobel Prize Winner (1992)
Education, Labor Force Quality, and the Economy
1991
William Vickrey, Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Nobel Prize Winner (1996)
Land, Rent, and Public Services
James Miller III, Senior Fellow at George Mason University and Stanford University
Washington's Budget Crisis and How to Solve It
1990
James Buchanan, Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia, UCLA, Virginia Tech and George
Mason University and Nobel Prize Winner (1986)
Economics and the Ethics of Idleness
Wassily Leontief, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and NYU and Nobel Prize Winner (1973)
The Present State of Economic Science
1989
William J. Baumol, Professor of Economics at Princeton University
The Long Run Productivity Record: The U.S. Isn't Doing So Badly
1988
Mason Gaffney, Professor of Economics at University of California, Riverside
How to Revive a Dead City
Karl Brunner, Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester
Issues in Monetarism
1987
Robert Andelson, Philosophy Professor at Auburn University
The Earth is the Lord's
Lawrence White, Professor of Economics at NYU
Completing the Financial Revolution: The Case for Free Banking
1986
Peter F. Bauer, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics
The Case Against Foreign Aid
Robert Hessen, Professor of Business at Stanford University
The Paradox of Socialism's Continued Popularity
1985
Daniel Holland, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Collecting Taxes Without Hurting Incentives
Block, Coyne, Gaskell
Perspectives on the Property Tax: A Panel Discussion
1984
Malcolm Gillis, Professor of Economics at Rice University
Flat Rate Taxes: A Case Study in Practical Application
Yale Brozen, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago
Politics versus Prosperity
1983
Frank Genovese, Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia
America's Economic Problems
1982
Leland Yeager, Professor of Economics at Auburn University and the University of Virginia
Henry George and Austrian Economics
C.Lowell Harris, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University
Messages that Survive a Century: Henry George in the 1980's
1981
Oscar Johannsen
The Economic Philosophy of Henry George