About the Authors of the Economic Freedom of the World project

James D. Gwartney is Professor of Economics and Gus A. Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair at Florida State University where he directs the Gus A. Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education. He served as Chief Economist of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress during 1999-2000. He is the co-author of a leading textbook, Economics: Private and Public Choice and a recently published primer Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity (St. Martin’s Press, 2005). His professional publications have appeared in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Cato Journal, Kyklos, and Southern Economic Journal. Gwartney was president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education and was awarded the association’s Adam Smith Award in 2004. His doctoral degree in economics is from the University of Washington, and he is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.

Robert A. Lawson is Professor of Economics and George H. Moor Chair in the School of Management at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. He earned his B.S. in economics from the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in economics from Florida State University. Lawson has professional publications in Public Choice, Cato Journal, Kyklos, Journal of Labor Research, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, and European Journal of Political Economy. He is a senior fellow with the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions where he has written extensively on issues of state and local public finance. Lawson served as president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education and is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.