Robert Gmeiner, Ph.D.

First and foremost, I am an aspiring follower of Jesus Christ with a delightful family.  After that, I am an economics professor at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  The success of my students and the relevance of my research are the measure of my own success as an academic.  Aside from academics, I'm a bit of a suburban gardener who likes fresh eggs and homegrown vegetables.

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I love research, and you can read it here.  My recent work has extensively used time series econometrics for empirical macroeconomics.  Coinciding with that, and informing my macroeconomic work, I have a fascination with the development of market systems and the institutions, incentives, circumstances, and processes that led to present economic systems, and which will shape these systems going forward.  Though broadly supportive of free markets, I do not consider myself an adherent of any school of thought, and I draw inspiration from several of them.

My research philosophy breaks down into a few parts:

1) Put first things first.  The discovery of truth - including scientific truth - is pleasing to God.  That truth should be useful, not trivial.

2) Learn from and understand those who think differently than I do.

3) Link the research question to the big picture, and don't focus on small questions.

4) Find solutions for problems, not problems for solutions, and push the boundaries of conventional thought.

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I earned my Ph.D. at Florida State University, studying under Dr. Randall Holcombe.  Prior to graduate school, I earned an undergraduate degree in economics and Russian at Wake Forest University, served as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Russian Far East.