The Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE) is a Texas-based association of teachers and scholars from colleges and universities, public policy institutes, and industry that promotes business and free enterprise. The organization has advocated conservative and libertarian-leaning ideas on economics and questions government bureaucracies. ¹

The organization grew out of the Chair of Private Enterprise, established at Georgia State University in 1963. GSU faculty coordinated with other universities and colleges around the country through the 1970s to establish similar chairs, eventually leading to the association. ²

Background

The Association of Private Enterprise Education is an association of teachers and scholars from colleges and universities, public policy institutes, and industry who promote business and free enterprise. ³

The association hosts an annual meeting for members to discuss scholarly findings and issues awards. ⁴ Panels at the conference often have libertarian leanings and include professors discussing research that is critical of bureaucracy on topics that have included problems with Social Security, the Food and Drug Administration, and judicial decisions that expand the reach of the state into private enterprise. ⁵

The association publishes The Journal of Private Enterprise, a forum for scholars to share their research with the wider academic community. ⁶

The association says there is an increasing interest in colleges and universities about private enterprise, economic education, entrepreneurship, and family business programs. The organization has assisted schools, colleges, and universities, businesses, government, foundations, labor unions, the media, and other institutions. ⁷

History

The Association of Private Enterprise Education grew out of the Chair of Private Enterprise, established at Georgia State University in Atlanta in 1963. ⁸ The GSU Chair of Private Enterprise was established “to develop through the educational field that type of political, social and economic environment which enable private enterprise to prosper and multiply.” The chair’s specific responsibilities included “encouraging and assisting in establishing other similar endeavors across the nation.” ⁹

The first person to hold the chair position was Professor Michael H. Mescon. With the assistance of GSU professors Craig Aronoff and Francis W. “Bill” Rushing, Mescon encouraged 13 colleges and universities to establish similar chairs through the 1970s. The Association of Private Enterprise Education emerged from the group of chairs and other participants. ¹⁰

Leadership

Nicolas Cachanosky is the president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education. He is an associate professor of economics at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He is a senior fellow of the American Institute for Economic Research and visiting professor of Universidad del CEMA in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a co-editor of the journal LIBERTAS: Segunda Época. He earned his Ph.D. in economics at Suffolk University. ¹¹

Claudia Williamson is the vice president of the APEE. Williamson is the Scott L. Probasco Distinguished Chair of Free Enterprise, Professor of Economics, and Director of the Center of Economic Education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She also works as an editor of the Journal of Institutional Economics. She earned her Ph.D. in economics at West Virginia University. ¹²

Benjamin Powell is the secretary/treasurer of the APEE. Powell is the executive director of the Free Market Institute and a professor of economics in the Jerry S. Rawls College of Business Administration at Texas Tech University. He is a past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education and a senior fellow with the Independent Institute. Powell previously taught economics at Suffolk University and San Jose State University. He earned his Ph.D. at George Mason University. ¹³

Edward Stringham is the editor of the Journal of Private Enterprise. Stringham is the Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of American Business and Economic Enterprise at Trinity College. ¹⁴

1. Carden, Art. “The Association of Private Enterprise Education is Decadent and Depraved: 2012.” Forbes. April 5, 2012. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2012/04/05/the-association-of-private-enterprise-education-is-decadent-and-depraved-2012/?sh=4c8aeaa453ae
2. “About APEE.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/about-apee/
3. “About APEE.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/about-apee/
4. “About APEE.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/about-apee/
5. Carden, Art. “The Association of Private Enterprise Education is Decadent and Depraved: 2012.” Forbes. April 5, 2012. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2012/04/05/the-association-of-private-enterprise-education-is-decadent-and-depraved-2012/?sh=4c8aeaa453ae
6. “About APEE.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/about-apee/
7. “About APEE.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/about-apee/
8. “About APEE.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/about-apee/
9. “About APEE.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/about-apee/
10. “About APEE.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/about-apee/
11. “APEE Officers.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/apee-officers/
12. “APEE Officers.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/apee-officers/
13. “APEE Officers.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/apee-officers/
14. “APEE Officers.” Association of Private Enterprise Education. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.apee.org/apee-officers/