Dirk Mateer

Senior Fellow
Research Areas
U.S. Economy & Economic Issues
The teaching of economics

Biography

Dirk Mateer is a senior fellow at the Civitas Institute, and the director of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program at the School of Civic Leadership at UT Austin. He is also professor of instruction in the Department of Economics.

In addition, he helps develop UT’s OnRamps microeconomics course for high school students, and is a senior teaching fellow in the Financial Responsibility and Economic Education program, both joint projects of the Civitas Institute and the Department of Economics. He is the coauthor of two textbooks, Essentials of Economics (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, and 2021), and Principles of Economics (W. W. Norton & Company, 2013, 2017, and 2020); and the author of Economics in the Movies, (Cengage Learning, 2004).

Mateer has been awarded numerous teaching awards including at Penn State University where he was voted the best overall teacher in the Smeal College of Business, at the University of Arizona, where he received the University’s Koffler Teaching Prize, a quadrennial award for his contributions in economic education, and at UT Austin, where he received the Kenneth G. Elzinga Distinguished Teaching Award from the Southern Economic Association. He has an M.S. and Ph.D. in economics from Florida State University.

Awards
Josh Blackman holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law at South Texas College of Law and is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He has authored three books, and his latest, An Introduction to Constitutional Law, was a top five bestseller on Amazon. He is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook.
Recent contributions

Trump's Endgame

Politics
Feb 22, 2025

Trump’s Tariff Gambit: How to Win a Trade War with Mexico and Canada

Politics
Feb 14, 2025

The Apprentice Is Back, and This Time He Means Business

Politics
Dec 3, 2024
Latest from

Dirk Mateer

Extreme Pricing Goes Viral: Lessons for Teaching Price Controls

Economic Dynamism
Mar 18, 2024

ChatGPT has Aced the Test of Understanding in College Economics: Now What?

Economic Dynamism
Apr 8, 2023

Engaging Gen Z Students with Economic Lessons Featuring MrBeast

Economic Dynamism
Feb 28, 2023

Music 4 Econ

Economic Dynamism
Dec 5, 2022

Trump's Endgame

Politics
Feb 22, 2025

Trump’s Tariff Gambit: How to Win a Trade War with Mexico and Canada

Politics
Feb 14, 2025

The Apprentice Is Back, and This Time He Means Business

Politics
Dec 3, 2024

We Assign a Failing Grade to Econonics Nobel Laureates

Politics
Oct 31, 2024

Contra Yellen, the Debt Isn't Sustainable

Politics
Jun 24, 2024

We Know Him as Youtube’s ‘MrBeast’ but He’s Got Something Powerful to Teach Americans

Pursuit of Happiness
Jun 1, 2024
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