Robert L. Formaini was a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in political economy from the University of Texas at Dallas as well as an M.A. in economics from Virginia Commonwealth University. He had been Co-founder and first Executive Director of the National Center for Policy Analysis; Vice President for Public Policy Affairs and Chief Executive Officer at the Cato Institute; Senior Economist and Public Policy Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas; Adjunct Instructor of Economics at Collin College; and Chair of the McCamish School of Business and Associate Professor of Business and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise, Reinhardt College. Dr. Formaini had also taught at Oxford College of Emory University, Graduate School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas, and Richland College.
He was the Founder and Founding Editor of The Cato Journal, and he was the author of the book, The Myth of Scientific Public Policy, editor of the forthcoming book Great Minds of the Market, plus author of numerous articles and reviews in scholarly volumes and such journals as Economic Insights (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas), The Independent Review, The Public Interest, Policy Sciences, Applied Research in Economic Development, Journal of Policy Management, Journal of Financial Transformation, Journal of Private Enterprise, The Cato Journal, Economic and Financial Review, and The Journal of Economic Methodology.
Dr. Formaini was the recipient of the Kent-Arnoff Distinguished Service Award and Best Educational Note Paper Award from the Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE), and he had also been a National Claude Lambe Fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies, Research Fellow at the Political Economy Research Institute, a member of the Executive Board Committee for APEE, and a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, (International Honor Society in Economics).