He earned his B.S. in economics at Ohio State University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics at the University of Rochester. He has been a member of the faculty at Rutgers University and was a visiting professor at Brandeis University and Ball State University. He has authored several publications in scholarly journals, has made frequent conference presentations and has served as a reviewer for academic journals. His current areas of research are state and local public finance, the economics of state lotteries, the effects of tax rates on tax bases and applied non-parametric econometrics. His work as a consultant includes a report on the economics and taxation of riverboat casinos for the Indiana Legislature and a report on tax expenditures and the budget process for the Minnesota Department of Revenue. He was a member of the Minnesota Governor's 21st Century Tax Reform Commission.