He earned his Ph.D. in economics from West Virginia University, and his undergraduate degree from Mercer University. His research focuses on topics in public economics and constitutional political economy, with a specific emphasis on constraining government. He has had articles appear in journals such as Economic Inquiry, Southern Economic Journal, Public Choice, and Constitutional Political Economy. At Troy, he teaches Principles of Microeconomics, Intermediate Microeconomics, Public Finance, Econometrics, and a course on the Economic and Moral Foundations of Capitalism.