James D. Gwartney served as Professor of Economics at Florida State University, and holder of the Gus A. Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair of Economic Education. His writings have been widely published in both the popular media and scholarly journals such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Economic Education, Southern Economic Journal and Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics. He is co-author (with Jane Shaw Stroup, Dwight Lee, Tawni Hunt Ferrarini and Joseph Calhoun) of "Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity," a primer on economics and personal finance. Dr. Gwartney's research focused on the measurement and determination of factors that influence cross-country differences in income levels and growth rates. Using this research, he developed and co-authors (with Robert Lawson, Joshua Hall and Ryan Murphy) the annual report, "Economic Freedom of the World," which provides information on the institutions and policies of 165 countries. This data set, published by a worldwide network of institutes, is widely used by scholars investigating topics ranging from economic growth to peaceful relations among nations. Dr. Gwartney served as chief economist of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress during 1999-2000. In 2004, he received the Adam Smith Award of the Association of Private Enterprise Education for his contributions to the advancement of free market ideals. He is a past president of both the Southern Economic Association and the Association for Private Enterprise Education. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington.