Michael Hicks, Ph.D., is director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and professor of economics at Ball State University. He is also an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.  He has held faculty and research positions at the Air Force Institution of Technology, Marshall University and the University of Tennessee, and holds degrees in economics from Virginia Military Institute and the University of Tennessee.

With research focusing on regional economics and public finance he is author of three books, more than forty academic papers and more than a hundred technical reports. His research has been reported in such places as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and has appeared on NPR, CSPAN, CNBC and The Nightly Business Report.  He also writes a weekly syndicated business column.

Michael is a retired reserve infantry officer and veteran of combat and peacekeeping service in the Middle East, Africa and Korea.  He makes a home with his wife and three children in Muncie, Indiana.