An expert on the effects of interest groups on public policies and economic outcomes will give the inaugural talk of the BB&T Lecture at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, in room 458 of the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics building. A reception follows the talk.

William F. Shughart II, the F. A. P. Barnard Distinguished Professor of Economics at The University of Mississippi, will speak onThe Political Economy of Constitutional Choice: A Study of the 2005 Kenyan Constitutional Referendum.

Kenyans rejected a proposed constitution that, despite promises made by their new chief executive, President Mwai Kibaki, would not have lessened the powers of the presidency. The talk will explore how ethnic groups voted according to gains and losses they expected as a result of constitutional change.

Dr. Shughart has published more than 190 scholarly articles, book chapters and reviews. His numerous books includeThe Organization of IndustryandAntitrust Policy and Interest-Group Politics. Shughart is editor-in-chief of Public Choice, a leading academic journal in public choice.

Shughart received his doctorate in economics from Texas A&M University in 1978. He has taught at Clemson University and George Mason University, where he was also a senior research associate at the Center for Study of Public Choice.

Shughart served as special assistant to the director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics during the Reagan administration and was on the Southern Economic Association’s board of trustees from 1996-98.