Richard K. Vedder studies higher education financing, labor economics, immigration, government fiscal policy, and income inequality. A distinguished professor of economics at Ohio University, he is the author of several books, including Going Broke by Degree; The Wal-Mart Revolution: How  Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy (with Wendell Cox); and Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America (with Lowell Gallaway). Dr. Vedder earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois.

Studies