Call for Papers and Session Proposals

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The 51^st Meeting of
The Association of Private Enterprise Education^®
Lopesan Costa Meloneras Resort/ExpoMeloneras
Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain
April 11-14, 2027

Private Enterprise in Times of Turmoil

The Association of Private Enterprise Education^® (APEE) invites proposals for its 51^st Meeting, which will take place at the Lopesan Costa Meloneras Resort in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain, April 11-14, 2027 (Sunday through Wednesday).

The Association is composed of scholars pursuing research in economics and other academic disciplines, as well as policy analysts and professional educators. The APEE Meeting explores topics related to the private enterprise system with research presentations and panel discussions focused on fields including, but not limited to, applied microeconomics, Austrian economics, public choice, new institutional economics, and political economy, as well as economic education and instructional techniques.

Attendees are encouraged to submit their papers to the Association’s journal, The Journal of Private Enterprise. There is no submission fee.

The deadline for submission of abstracts and session proposals is Tuesday, December 1, 2026.

APEE welcomes paper submissions and session proposals related to the theme of the 51^st Meeting:

Private Enterprise in Times of Turmoil

Private Enterprise has supplied the primary engine for the Great Enrichment, the unprecedented rise in the worldwide standards of living and prosperity between the 18^th century and the present. Despite this unambiguous track record, free markets are under attack. Socialism, mercantilism, and similar failed economic ideologies from the past are undergoing a rehabilitation in public opinion. Free market economics, often caricatured as “neoliberalism,” has become a political scapegoat on both the anticapitalist left and the postliberal right.

Economic liberalization receives blame for a litany of social problems, both real and imagined. Economists’ aversion to tariffs, price controls, minimum wages, inflationary monetary practices, and public ownership of companies are coming under sustained attacks in the policy world, with most originating from outside of the economics profession or from its far-left and far-right heterodox peripheries. The turmoil of war, political instability, and the spread of governance through “emergency” political powers have caused an erosion of constitutional norms that undergird private enterprise. These and other patterns have manifested in data, with the Economic Freedom of the World Index entering into a period of sustained backsliding since peaking in the late 2010s.

The APEE 51^st Meeting provides an opportunity to investigate the causes and consequences of these unsettling trends, while also reinvigorating the need to bolster the positive case for private enterprise in times of turmoil. Paper submissions and session proposals on this theme can address:

• Examining the backslide in economic freedom in the 2020s, and strategies for countering this trend.
• The causes and consequences of socialism’s rebound in popular opinion worldwide, particularly among younger generations.
• Pedagogical approaches for teaching the principles of private enterprise, free trade, and property rights in a time of “anti-globalization” and increasing government intervention in the economic arena.
• The role of “populist” political movements on the left and right in promoting interventionist economic policies.
• Answering the challenges to private enterprise from anti-market and illiberal political movements such as “democratic socialism,” Modern Monetary Theory, neo-mercantilism/protectionism, and postliberalism.
• Invigorating the study of philosophical and ethical dimensions of private enterprise, particularly amid the rise of anticapitalist moral/ethical arguments.
• The role of historical perception in shaping economic beliefs today, e.g. the contested legacies of the Great Depression, the 2008 financial crisis, historical tariff policies, slavery and colonialism, the Soviet Union and communism.
• Evaluating and scrutinizing socio-political problems that are often blamed on private enterprise, e.g. economic inequality, deindustrialization, environmental degradation, and “neoliberalism”.
• How recent conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, and elsewhere have affected regional and global trends in economic freedom.
• Instructional and teaching strategies on the case for economic freedom and private enterprise.

APEE also welcomes papers on any topic in the broad area of private enterprise.

Individuals wishing to submit a paper(s) or session proposal(s) should submit directly through the APEE Meeting Savvy submission portal. Questions about the program theme and submission process may be directed to APEE Vice President/Program Chair Phillip Magness (The Independent Institute) at apee.meeting@ttu.edu or (806) 742-7138.

The deadline for submission of abstracts and session proposals is Tuesday, December 1, 2026.