Randal R. Rucker is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University, and author of Plowshares & Pork Barrels: The Political Economy of Agriculture (with Ernest C. Pasour, Jr.). He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington, and he has been Associate Professor of Economics and Business at North Carolina State University, Economist at the U.S. Department of the Interior, and Research Fellow for the Sloan Foundation.

His scholarly articles and reviews have appeared in the American Economic Review, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Forest Science, The Independent Review, Journal of Economic History, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Applied Forestry, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Journal of Political Economy, and Review of Economics and Statistics. A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, Professor Rucker is the author of numerous technical studies on natural resource and environmental issues.