I’m pleased to announce that EconLog has a new guest blogger. He is Art Carden. Art is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Samford University’s Brock School of Business in Birmingham, Alabama, a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics, a Research Fellow with the Independent Institute, a Senior Fellow with the Beacon Center of Tennessee, and a regular contributor to Forbes.com and the Washington Examiner. Art earned his Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis. Here is a brief bio that gives a few more details.

Purely coincidentally, I lined up Art and Steven Horwitz for an Econlib Featured Article months ago, before I knew the guest blogging deal was in the works, and it appears the same day as this announcement.

One of the first times I met Art was in January 2009. Art had contacted me before the American Economic Association meetings were held in San Francisco and asked if he could come and give a research talk at the Naval Postgraduate School after the meetings. Never one to turn down a zero-price talk by an already accomplished economist, I said yes. His talk was excellent and it turned into this article.

One of the strands of research for which Art is known best is his work on Wal-Mart.

Art is a dedicated teacher. When he attended the annual meetings of the Association for Private Enterprise Education in Nassau, he brought five of his most promising undergrads with him and their questions at a session that I ran showed that they were on top of the issues.

Art is a man of tremendous energy and I look forward to his contributions.