About The Authors

James D. Gwartney is a Professor of Economics and Policy Sciences at Florida State University and a Research Associate of the James Madison Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington in 1970. He has published numerous articles in professional journals of economics, primarily in the areas of taxation, public choice and labour economics. His popular writings have appeared in many newspapers including the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Richard L. Stroup is a Professor of Economics at Montana State University and a Senior Associate of the Political Economy Research Centre. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1970 and was the Director of the Office of Policy Analysis at the U.S. Department of Interior during 1982-1984. Widely published in the areas of natural resources and environmental economics, he has been a major force in the development of the approach to resource problems known as free market environmentalism. His recent research has focused on alternative institutional arrangements for dealing with environmental risk.

Professors Gwartney and Stroup are both members of the Mont Pèlerin Society, an international organization of economists. They are the coauthors of Economics: Private and Public Choice, 6th edition (Dryden Press, 1992), a widely used college level economics text, and Introductory Economics: The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (Dryden Press, 1993).

Michael A. Walker is Executive Director of the Fraser Institute. He received his B.A. (summa) from St. Francis Xavier University in 1966 and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Western Ontario in 1969.

Dr. Walker writes regularly for daily newspapers and financial periodicals. His articles have also appeared in technical journals. He has been a columnist in The Province, the Toronto Sun, The Ottawa Citizen, The Financial Post, the Sterling newspaper chain, and community newspapers across Canada.

He is an author, editor, and contributor to more than twenty books on economic matters, some of which include Balancing the Budget; Flat-Rate Tax Proposals; Reaction: The National Energy Program; Rent Control: A Popular Paradox; Unions and the Public Interest; Discrimination, Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity; Privatization: Theory and Practice; Trade Unions and Society; Privatization: Tactics and Techniques; and Freedom, Democracy and Economic Welfare.

Dr. Walker is also a member of the Mont Pèlerin Society, and of the Canadian and American Economic Associations and the International Association of Energy Economists.