He is the director of graduate students and a research fellow at the Free Market Institute. Professor of economics in the Jerry S. Rawls College of Business Administration at Texas Tech University. He earned his B.A. in economics from the College of the Holy Cross and his Ph.D. in economics from Emory University. His research focuses on constitutional political economy, particularly that of late antiquity and the medieval era in Europe. He is the author of more than 40 scholarly articles and book chapters.