Vinson Centre Conference: Classical Liberalism 2026
In collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Governance and Society (King’s College London)
On The Legacy of the Chicago School of Economics (On the 50th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s Nobel Prize)
Date: 26 June 2026
Time: 10:00 – 19:00
Venue: Vinson Building Auditorium, University of Buckingham, Hunter Street, Buckingham, MK18 1EG.
Below are the sessions with their chairpersons.
Programme for the day:
9.45 am Arrival and Coffee
10.00 am Welcome by Mr David Cole (Acting Vice-Chancellor, University of Buckingham), Professor Juan Castañeda, Director of the Vinson Centre (University of Buckingham) and Professor Mark Pennington, Director of the Centre for the Study of Governance and Society (King’s College London).
10.15 am
Opening lecture, ‘On the Legacy of the Chicago School of Economics’.
By Dr Philip Magness (David J. Theroux Chair in Political Economy at the Independent Institute)
11.00 am Discussion.
11:15 am Session 1 – Market Regulation
Chairperson: Dr Cento Veljanovski (Case Associates)
Speakers:
Mr Matthew Lesh (Country Manager for Freshwater Strategy)
‘AI and Market Regulation’
Dr Franco Mariuzzo (University of East Anglia)
‘The impact of competition and market regulation’
12:15pm Discussion.
12:45pm Break for Lunch.
1:30 pm Session 2 – Friedman and the Quantity Theory of Money Tradition
Chairperson: Professor Juan Castañeda (Vinson Centre)
Speakers:
Professor Charles Goodhart, CBE (Emeritus Professor of Banking and Finance, LSE)
‘Milton Friedman and the legacy of monetarism’
John Greenwood, OBE (Chief Economist, International Monetary Monitor Ltd)
2:30pm Discussion.
3:15 am Session 3 – Education and Human Capital
Chairperson: Professor Mark Pennington (King’s College London)
Speakers:
Professor Christian Bjornskov (Aarus university, Denmark)
‘Positive externalities of education – are they really there?’
Dr Niclas Berggren (Prague University of Economics and Business)
‘Tolerance and Human Capital’
4:15pm Discussion.
4:45pm Break for Tea and Coffee.
5:15 pm Session 4 – A dialogue between Dr Philip Magness (David J. Theroux Chair in Political Economy at the Independent Institute) and Professor Martin Ricketts (University of Buckingham) on ‘The methodology of Economics and of Political Economy’.
Chairperson: Dr James Forder (Oxford University)
Discussion: Should economic theories be judged only by the accuracy of their predictions?
6:30pm Drinks Reception.
End of formal proceedings of the conference by the Dean of the Faculty of Business, Humanities & Social Sciences (Professor Deba Bardhan Correia).
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