FTE Honors Professor Robert Lawson

I was privileged to introduce this year’s winner of the Gary M. Walton Award for Excellence in Economic Education for 2025, Professor Robert Lawson of Southern Methodist University, at our leadership annual conference in Naples, Florida, March 6-8, 2025.

The Walton Award, which recognizes excellence in the field of economic education, is named in honor of longtime Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE) president Dr. Gary M. Walton. It is presented to an individual who has met one or more of the following criteria:

1. who has taken an entrepreneurial or innovative approach to economic education;
2. has shown exemplary dedication to improving economic education and the teaching of economics;
3. has advanced the understanding of economics and the economic way of thinking; and through their work has inspired students, teachers or the general public to appreciate economics.

Previous recipients of the Walton Award include economists Terry Anderson, former president and executive director of the Property and Environment Research Center, and Russell Roberts, current president of Shalem College in Jerusalem and host of the popular EconTalk podcast.

Dr. Lawson is the Jerome M. Fullinwider Centennial Chair in Economic Freedom and director of the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. He is a founding co-author of the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World Annual Report, which presents an economic freedom index for more than 160 countries.

Lawson has authored or co-authored over 100 academic publications. With Benjamin Powell, he is co-author of the Amazon Bestseller, “Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World.” Lawson’s research has been cited over 14,000 times, according to Google Scholar. Lawson is also the past-president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, and a member of the Mont Pelerin Society. He has won the Adam Smith Award from the Association of Private Enterprise Education.

We incorporate his work on the Economic Freedom of the World Annual Report into almost every curriculum unit FTE offers, including Socialism: Myths v Realities, Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?, Economics for Teachers, Economics of Innovation, and Issues of International Trade. The report is an excellent tool for showing high school students and teachers the incredibly strong link between economic freedom and a nation’s wealth. The more economic freedom a nation has, where the rule of law prevails, property rights are protected, and where people are free to trade (even with people in other countries), the better outcomes for its citizens.

Thanks to Lawson’s work in creating the annual report, he continues to help thousands of high school students and teachers gain a better understanding of how economic freedom promotes human flourishing.