Profile
Bradley K. Hobbs is a Clinical Professor at Clemson University. He was previously the BB&T Distinguished Professor of Free Enterprise at Florida Gulf Coast University for 19 years and was the sole founding faculty member of the economics department at that institution. He earned his undergraduate degree in history (1983) and then his PhD in economics from Florida State University (1991).
Professor Hobbs has been active in undergraduate education having served as the founding Faculty Advisor for two undergraduate research journals. He earned the Bellarmine College Instructional Development Award (1993), the Florida Gulf Coast University - Senior Faculty Teaching Award (2003-2004), and an Acton Foundation Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Award (2008). He has taught or directed seminars for a number of national organizations including the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE), the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS), and The Liberty Fund.
His research work is wide in range encompassing property rights, economic freedom, economic growth, financial markets, economic and intellectual history, the philosophical foundations of markets, and teaching. He has published in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, The Journal of Accounting and Finance Research, Journal of Real Estate Research, Laissez-Faire, Journal of Economics and Finance Education, Journal of Executive Education, Journal of Private Enterprise, Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Financial Practice and Education, Research in Finance, and others. Current research projects include a stream of literature on relationships between economic freedom, economic growth, and entrepreneurial behavior; cost changes in higher education; and a book project promoting humanism through libertarianism.
Professor Hobbs was invited to Clemson University as the F.A. Hayek Visiting Scholar in the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism (CISC) for a Visiting Appointment in 2012-13. He serves as a Research Fellow at the James Madison Institute in Tallahassee, Florida and on the Board as the Academic Advisor for The Bastiat Society in Columbia, South Carolina. Professor Hobbs is a Past President of the Association of Private Enterprise Education and a long-time member of the Mont Pelerin Society.
Professor Hobbs' personal interests revolve around outdoors activities such as camping, fishing, boating, and hunting. He has hiked portions of the Appalachian Trail, held a variety of interesting jobs such as hot-air balloon crew, roofer, emergency medical technician and firefighter. He once wrestled in a professional ring before a crowd of 2,000 and he shot a black bear with a muzzle-loading rifle in the wilds of Northern Ontario. He can also construct a semi-accurate potato launcher. He and his wife Christy made regular payments to Clemson University and a few downtown Clemson establishments for Casey Elizabeth (Industrial Engineering, 2013) and Amanda Jane (Industrial Engineering, 2014). It was worth every penny.
