School of Social and Political Science

Content

A student at the School of Social and Political Science has won first prize for best essay in an international competition that aims to advance Austrian economics.

Congratulations to David McMillan, a Master’s student in Public Policy, who won the 14th International Vernon Smith Prize. The competition is organised by the European Centre of Austrian Economics Foundation and named in honour of Vernon Smith, a 2002 Nobel Prize laureate, who gained recognition for his work in economic sciences.

The competition required a 3,500 essay with the subject The ‘Pretence of Knowledge’ as a Method of Governance. The jury, which included Vernon Smith, judged 49 essays in total from both academics and students from across the world. HSH Prince Michael of Liechtenstein presented the award at an online ceremony.

David’s essay, titled Economics Set Free: In Defence of Hayek is about the Keynesian risk-uncertainty distinction and the role of markets in capturing tacit knowledge, and the challenge that changes in human behaviour pose to policymaking. His essay advances an argument based on Friedrich Hayek, an Austrian-British economist, who held a position on classifying economics as a social science and its impact on policymaking.

David said: "The book Radical Uncertainty, written by Sir John Kay, inspired my prize-winning essay and the course Political Issues in Public Policy, taught by Jay Wiggan and Markus Ketola at the University of Edinburgh, allowed me to marshal arguments related to evidence-based policymaking."

He said: "I owe a debt of gratitude to my undergraduate advisor, James Stacey Taylor, whose groundbreaking work in the field of ethics shaped my views on the relationship between morality and markets, and to the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York whose generous financial support has made my graduate study possible."