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 Principles of Microeconomics, Intermediate Microeconomics, Economics of Law, Economics of Sports, Labor Economics, Economics of Public Expenditures, Natural Resource Economics, Game Theory, and Economics Capstone.
His current research focuses on sports economics, economic education, game theoretic applications in the law, differences in cooperative and altruistic behavior across groups, and the economics of higher education.
He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi and Omicron Delta Epsilon honor societies, and the American Economic Association.