He is the recipient of numerous awards for both his teaching and research including the Kenneth G. Elzinga Distinguished Teaching Award from the Southern Economic Association, the Georgescu-Roegen Prize for Best Article of the Year in the Southern Economic Journal, the Best Article of the Year Award from the Atlantic Economic Journal, the Templeton Award for the Best Article of the Year from the Journal of Private Enterprise, the Association of Private Enterprise Education Distinguished Scholar Award, and the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award for his book Unleashing Capitalism. He has produced over two dozen Ph.D. students, most of which have gone on to pursue distinguished academic careers.

He is the author or coauthor of over 250 academic journal articles and books including Growth and Variability in State Tax Revenue: An Anatomy of State Fiscal Crises (with Randall Holcombe), Economics: Private and Public Choice (with James Gwartney, Richard Stroup and David Macpherson), The Rule of Law, Unleashing Capitalism, and The Essential Joseph Schumpeter (with Jason Clemens). His publications have appeared in a wide variety of academic journals including the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Law and Economics, Public Choice, Journal of Business Venturing, Small Business Economics, and Economic Inquiry. Articles featuring his research have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Investor’s Business Daily, and The Economist Magazine, and he has appeared on CNBC, Fox News, CSPAN, NPR, and the CBS Evening News. His current recent research focuses on the intersection of entrepreneurship and economic policy.