Dr. Olson is the chair of the Economics Department. He has been at Truman since 1990. He holds a B.S. degree in economics and a B.A. degree in statistics from the University of Minnesota and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
His teaching interests include Introduction to Economics, Principles of Microeconomics, Intermediate Microeconomics, Industrial Organization and Public Policy, Econometrics, Labor Economics, Economics of Public Expenditures, Economics of Law, Economics of Sustainability, and Senior Seminar in Economics.
His current research focuses on applied cost-benefit analysis, personnel economics, differences in cooperative and altruistic behavior across groups, and game theoretic applications in the law.
He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi and Omicron Delta Epsilon honor societies, the American Economic Association, the Canadian Economic Association, the Society of Labor Economists, the Southern Economic Association, and the Western Economic Association International.