James Gwartney is a Professor of Economics and Policy Sciences at Florida State University. He has a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Washington. Along with Richard Stroup of Montana State University, he is the author of Economics: Private and Public Choice (Harcourt Brace). This text, now in its 8th edition, has been used by more than 1 million students during the last two decades. A member of the Mont Pelerin Society, during 1993-94, Professor Gwartney taught at the Central European University in Prague, Czech Republic. He has published in the leading journals of professional economics, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Cato Journal, and Southern Economic Journal.

Robert Lawson is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio; he taught previously at Shawnee State University. He earned his B.S. from the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University in 1988 and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Florida State University in 1991 and 1992, respectively. He has published articles in several journals, including Public Choice, the Journal of Labor Research, and the Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice. Professor Lawson has written extensively on public policy issues such as welfare reform, Medicaid, tax policy, and prevailing wage regulations. He has recently been named the Director of Fiscal Policy Studies for the Dayton-based Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions.