The following is a list of suggested reading for the seminar:
- Frédéric Bastiat, “The Physiology of Plunder,” from Economic Sophisms
- Ben Bernanke, “The Macroeconomics of the Great Depression: A Comparative Approach”
- Étienne de la Boétie, The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
- Peter Boettke, Christopher Coyne and Peter Leeson, “Institutional Stickiness and the New Development Economics”
- William Easterly, "Institutions: Top Down or Bottom Up?"
- William Easterly, "Was Development Assistance a Mistake?"
- David Hart, “Schematic Diagram showing the Institutions and Class Structure of the State”
- Frederich von Hayek, “Introduction” and “Cosmos and Taxis” from Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. I
- Laura Kalman, "The Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the New Deal"
- Peter Leeson, “Better Off Stateless: Somalia Before and After Government Collapse”
- Stanley Milgram, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View, Introduction and Conclusion
- Douglas North “Institutions”
- Sheldon D. Pollack, “War and the Development of the American State,” from War, Revenue, and State Building: Financing the Development of the American State
- Benjamin Powell and Edward Stringham, “Public Choice and the Economic Analysis of Anarchy: A Survey"
- Raghuram Rajan, “Assume Anarchy”
- Murray Rothbard, "The Anatomy of the State" from Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Nature
- R.J. Rummel, "Death by Government," see statistics
- Amy Dru Stanley, From Bondage to Contract: Wage Labor, Marriage, and the Market in the Age of Slave Emancipation, Chapters 1 and 2
- Steve Teles, The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law, Chapter 1
- Video Clips
