Ross B. Emmett is associate professor of political theory and constitutional democracy at James Madison College, Michigan State University. He conducts research on classical economic thought and the history of economics at the University of Chicago between the 1920's and the 1980's. He has edited the three-volume Great Bubbles: Reactions to the South Sea Bubble, the Mississippi Scheme and the Tulip Mania Affair (Pickering & Chatto, 2000); a two-volume collection of The Selected Essays of Frank H. Knight (University of Chicago, 1999); and the eight- volume collection The Chicago Tradition in Economics, 1892-1945 (Routhledge, 2001). He is an editor of the research annual Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology.

F. Andrew Hanssen is associate professor of economics at Montana State University. His areas of research include institutions, law and economics, political economy, and industrial organization. He has published articles in a number of referred journals, including the American Economic Review; the Journal of Law and Economics; the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization; and the Journal of Legal Studies. Several of his articles have been republished in books. He was a National Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution in 2000-01. Hanssen received his B.A. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and an MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Before getting his Ph.D., he was a management consultant, working in Europe, Latin America, and the Far East. He joined the Montana State faculty in 1995.

Robert K. Fleck is associate professor of economics at Montana State University. Fleck's research combines theoretical and statistical analysis, and his major fields of interest include political economy, public finance, economic history, and development economics. Much of his work focuses on the central issue of why so many countries fail to adopt successful political and economic reforms. his research has provided new insights into a wide range of topics, including the origins of democracy in ancient Greece, the performance of electoral systems, the rise of women's rights, the downfall of communism, and the operations of the World Bank. Fleck has won awards for both research and teaching. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of California at San Diego, and holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Jonathan H. Adler is Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Business Law and Regulation at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he teaches courses in environmental and constitutional law. Professor Adler's research focused on the intersection of environmental and constitutional law and examines alternatives to federal environmental regulation. In 2004, he received the Paul M. Bator Award, given annually to an academic under the age of 40 for excellence in legal scholarship and teaching, from the Federalist Society of Law and Public Policy. Prior to joining the faculty at Case Western, Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 1991 to 2000, Professor Adler worked at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market research and advocacy group in Washington, D.C., where he directed CEI's environmental studies program. He is currently a contributing editor to National Review Online, and serves on the Board of Directors for the America's Future Foundation and the editorial board of the Cato Supreme Court Review.

Bruce Benson is the DeVoe Moore Distinguished Research Professor in Economics at Florida State University. He has published over 110 academic journal articles, more than 40 chapters in edited volumes, and four books since receiving his Ph.D. from Texas A&M (1978). His research focus in recent years might be classified as "law and economics", broadly defined, as it includes work on: (1)the economics of crime and illicit drug policy; (2)private alternatives to publicly provided law, law enforcement, adjudication, and roads; the evolution of law, norms, and institutions of governance with applications to emerging markets, the internet, and Native American communities; and (3)behavior and decision making in the public sector, including analysis of law-enforcement resource allocation, corruption, the opportunity costs of regulation, and the adjudication process. The Independent Institute was awarded the Atlas Economic Research Foundation's 2000 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award recognizing it as "the institute that published a book ... in 1998 or 1999 that, in the opinion of the judges, made the greatest contribution to public understanding of the free economy" for Professor Benson's 1998 book, To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice. Professor Benson has also received a Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge for his course on the "Economics of Native Americans" (2004), a Fulbright Senior Specialists Grant to the Czech Republic (2003-2004), the 2001 "Distinguished Scholar Award" given to a member of the Association of Private Enterprise Education "who has, over a sustained period of years, made a significant contribution to the research and literature of free market economics", the 1999 Journal of Private Enterprise Best Paper Award, the 1989 Georgescu-Roegen Prize for the best Southern Economics Journal article, as well as several other awards and grants.

Walter Thurman is Professor of Agricultural and Resource economics at North Carolina State University. He conducts research in the economics and political economy of agricultural and natural resource policy and has published widely on this topic. His published work includes empirical studies of quota schemes in the United States for peanuts and tobacco, analysis of the effects of the Clean Water and Clear Air Acts, and compensation schemes in the poultry industry. He currently is studying land trusts and the rise of markets for crop pollination services. Thurman was the first recipient of the American Agricultural Economics Association Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award in 1996 and the first recipient of the NCSU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Outstanding Graduate Instructor Award in 1994-1995. He acts as a consultant for the Research Triangle Institute's Center for Economics Research and the Society of Actuaries/Casualty Actuary Society. Thurman holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Gary D. Libecap is the Anheuser Busch Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies, Economics, and Law and director of the Karl Eller Center at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is also a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Libecap has published extensively on property rights and regulation as they relate to natural resources, the environment, and agriculture. He has been coeditor of the Journal of Economic History and member of the Economics Panel of the National Science Foundation.

B. Delworth Gardner is emeritus professor of economics at Brigham Young University and professor emeritus of agricultural economics at University of California, Davis. A highly respected agricultural economist, Gardner is known for his path-breaking analyses of the impact of government policy on issues such as water allocation, livestock grazing, and oil shale development. He has taught at numerous universities and served as president of the Western Agricultural Economics Association. He has been a consultant to many organizations, including the Agency for International Development; the Ford Foundation, India; the California Department of Water Resources, and others. He was a PERC Julian Simon Fellow in 2002, where he studied globalization and its impact on the environment and natural resources.

R. David Simpson was former senior fellow in Resources for the Future's Energy and Natural Resources division. He has since joined the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. Simpson's research focused on the economics of biological diversity, including the valuation of diversity for its use in new product research and development, and alternative conservation strategies, including market-based incentives. He also has investigated the relationship between industrial and environmental policy and issues related to land use, sustainable development, and technological innovation. Simpson has edited two books and written many journal articles and book chapters on the economics of biodiversity, conservation policy, environmental regulation, and industrial competition. He is a member of the editorial council of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and has chaired the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists' annual workshop. Simpson frequently consults on biodiversity and conservation policy for foreign governments and international aid institutions. David received his bachelor's degree from Whitman College and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Robert McCormick graduated Clemson University with a B.A. in Economics in 1972 and received his M.A. in Economics in 1974 from Clemson. He was awarded the Ph.D. degree in Economics from Texas A&:M University in 1978 and the accolade as the Al Chalk Distinguished Graduated Student in Economics. He is currently Professor of Economics at Clemson University. McCormick has been an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the Simon Graduate School of Management at the University of Rochester, a Visiting Professor of Economics at Universidad Marroquin (Guatemala), a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Public Choice (VPI), and a Lecturer at the Consortium International MBA (Italy). He was honored as the BB&T Scholar at Clemson University starting in the Fall of 2000. McCormick has served as a consultant to the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission. He regularly consults and advises companies on financial matters and provides expert courtroom testimony. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and the S.C. legislature on telecommunications and electricity deregulation and the future of these markets. He has served as a consultant to the Treasury of New Zealand and the Canadian government. McCormick has been an associate editor of the academic journals, Journal of Corporate Finance and the Southern Economic Journal. He is a frequent reviewer of manuscripts for publication in academic journals. He is a cofounder along with Peter Melvin of Sportometrics, a sports and economics consulting firm specializing in golf course research. McCormick is a principal consultant with Nathan Associates. He has published in a broad range of academic books and journals on public policy, managerial and financial economics, telecommunications and electricity markets, sports and economics, antitrust and industrial organization. McCormick was honored as the 1996 Prince Innovative Teacher of Clemson University by the Student Government of Clemson University. In 1998, he was chosen as the Clemson University Alumni Master Teacher of the Year. He was chosen as the Clemson University MBA Professor of the Year for 2001. He is the recipient of the 1997 and 1999 Clemson University Trustee's Award for Excellence. McCormick was appointed PERC Senior Associate in 2002. McCormick's favorite pastimes are golf, woodworking, and plowing. A tree farmer and hunter, and if he enjoys anything more than his tractor, it is a walk in the woods with his wife and two boys.

Seth W. Norton is Aldeen Professor of Business at Wheaton College. He holds a B.A. in history from Northwestern University and an M.B.A. in finance and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. Norton has published in a variety of areas -- development economics, industrial organization, finance, marketing, and strategic management. Publications include works in the Cato Journal, Contemporary Political Economy, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Business, Journal of Law & Economics, and Strategic Management Journal. As a Julian Simon Fellow at PERC in 2001, Norton studied the links between economic institutions and human well- being across countries.

Roger A. Sedjo received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington. He is currently a Senior Fellow and Director of Forest Economics and Policy Program (FEPP) at Resources for the Future (RFF) in Washington, D.C., where he has been responsible for the direction, administration, coordination, and fundraising for the FEPP since the program's inception in 1977. The principal activity of the program is public policy research in forestry and related areas, leading to publication of books, articles and reports. Sedjo began his career as assistant professor of economics at Utah State University before becoming technical advisor to the Economic Planning Board of the Republic of Korea for the construction of the Third Five-Year Economic Development Plan, 1972-1976. He then joined the Department of State's Asia Bureau, Agency for International Development, as program economist where his duties included assessment and evaluation of existing and proposed AID programs in Asia and monitoring and assessing the overall economic and balance of payments situation of particular countries. Just before joining RFF, Sedjo was tenured associate professor of economics at Utah State University where he specialized in international development and resource economics. He is editor of a number of books on forestry including a forthcoming book entitled A Vision of the Forest (RFF, May 2000) and one of the coauthors of Sustainability in Temperate Forests (RFF, 1998) and Global Forests: Issues for Six Billion People (McGraw-Hill, 1991), among other books. He has published chapters in books and articles in professional journals such as Journal of Forestry, American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Indur Goklany received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University. He has over twenty-five years of experience addressing science and policy aspects of environmental and natural resource policy issues in state and federal government, and in the private sector. At the EPA's Chicago regional office, he helped develop air pollution control strategies and regulations for the U.S. industrial heartland. Subsequently, as Chief Technical Assessment Division, National Commission on Air Quality, he analyzed national impacts of pollution and its control. After a period as a Washington based consultant on energy and environmental issues to both government and industry, he helped develop the EPA's first ever new source bubble (emission trade) for which he was awarded an EPA bronze medal. Working with the EPA's Regulatory Reform Staff, he was responsible for helping it adopt the emissions trading policy statement in the mid-1980's. At the Department of the Interior's Office of Policy Analysis, he served on various national and international panels and groups dealing with global climate change and acid rain. He has published extensively in various scholarly journals on air pollution, climate change, biodiversity, global food security, and the role of technology, economic growth, and trade in creating, as well as solving environmental problems. He has also published a book on the history and origins of air pollution control in the U.S. titled Clearing the Air: The Real Story of the War on Air Pollution. While serving as a D & D Foundation Julian Simon Fellow at PERC, Indur Goklany was on leave from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Policy Analysis. His work as the Julian Simon Fellow was conducted as an independent scholar and was not part of his official duties with the Department, nor does it necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department or any other branch of government.