Susan Feigenbaum, Ph.D., is a professor of economics at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Previously, Feigenbaum was an associate professor of economics at Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate School. She has also been a visiting scholar at the Public Choice Center at George Mason University, a Robert Wood Johnson fellow in health care finance, and chief of methodology for the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. Feigenbaum received her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and spent a year of graduate study as an Earhart Fellow in the Department of Economics at UCLA. She has written extensively on private versus public provision of goods and services, focusing on a diverse set of industries, including water utilities, charity (income redistribution), and health care. Feigenbaum has also contributed significantly to the literature on the economics of scientific inquiry, examining the incentives that result in scientific replication, error, and fraud. She has been the recipient of several National Science Foundation grants for both research and curriculum development. Feigenbaum has received numerous honors and awards, including the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Teaching; the St. Louis Chanel Woman of Influence Award and the UM-SL Trailblazer Award. Currently, Feigenbaum is collaborating with Professor Rik Hafer on a new, innovative introductory economics textbook, Economics: The Way We Live, which will be published in December 2010 by Freeman-Worth Publishers (New York City).
Beverly Gossage is a consumer-based health care expert and research fellow with the Show-Me Institute. In addition to training and writing health savings account (HSA) policies for individuals and the self-employed, she helped pioneer them for businesses in Kansas and Missouri. She has testified on health policy bills in both houses of the Kansas and Missouri Legislatures, and serves on the health advisory board of the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy.
On March 5, 2007, the Show-Me Institute sponsored Gossage’s presentation to the Missouri Legislature on HSAs and free-market approaches to health insurance reform. The Legislature subsequently drafted HB 818, a market-based reform bill that incorporated many of the ideas Gossage presented. Gov. Matt Blunt signed it into law in June of that year.
Rik Hafer is the Distinguished Research Professor of Economics and Finance and chair of the Department of Economics and Finance at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Dr. Hafer worked in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis from 1979 to 1989, rising to the position of research officer. He has taught at several institutions, including Saint Louis University and Washington University–Saint Louis, the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, and Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Since joining SIUE he also has served as a consultant to the Central Bank of the Philippines, as a research fellow with the Institute of Urban Research (SIUE), and as a visiting scholar with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He has published nearly 100 academic articles, and is the author, coauthor, or editor of five books on monetary policy and financial markets. Most recently, he co-authored The Stock Market, published in 2007. In addition to his academic work, he is a regular columnist for the Illinois Business Journal and the St. Louis Beacon, and has written many opinion pieces appearing in the Wall Street Journal, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the St. Louis Business Journal. He also has appeared on local and national television programs, including CNBC's "Power Lunch." Dr. Hafer received his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and his Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech.
Michael R. Pakko is a Research Officer and Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis. He joined the Bank staff in 1993 and has worked in the fields of international economics, macroeconomics and regional economic analysis. Dr. Pakko received his bachelor’s degree in socioeconomic policy problems and economics from Michigan State University in 1984 and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rochester in 1994. Dr. Pakko has previously held positions as adjunct assistant professor of economics at Saint Louis University, as research assistant at the University of Rochester’s Department of Economics, as an economic analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, and as a research intern at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. In 2007, Dr. Pakko joined the Saint Louis Fed’s CRE8™, the Center for Regional Economics. The role of CRE8™ is to provide and facilitate rigorous economic analysis of policy issues affecting local, state, and regional economies.
Michael Podgursky is a professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he served as department chair from 1995 to 2005. He has published numerous articles and reports on education policy and teacher quality and coauthored a book titled Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality. Podgursky is a member of the advisory boards of the National Council on Teacher Quality and the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. From 1980 to 1995, he served on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He earned his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Missouri–Columbia and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
