James D. Gwartney (1940–2024) was Professor of Economics, holder of the Gus A. Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair, and Director of the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington, and he is co-author of the annual report from the Fraser Institute, Economic Freedom of the World, for which the Independent Institute is Associate Member Sponsor.
President of the Southern Economic Association, Professor Gwartney also served as Chief Economist of the Joint Economic Committee of the U. S. Congress, and his books include Economics: Private and Public Choice and Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity. He was the recipient of the Adam Smith Award from the Association of Private Enterprise Education.
His scholarly articles were published in such journals as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, The Independent Review, Southern Economic Journal, and Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics.
