Senior Economist and Public Policy Advisor
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Robert L. Formaini is a senior economist and public policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and adjunct professor of economics at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Formaini attended Ithaca College (New York), earning his B.F.A. in music in 1968. He taught in the Richmond public schools and played with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra before returning to Virginia Commonwealth University to earn his M.A. in economics. In 1978 he took a position with the Cato Institute, then located in San Francisco. Beginning as Cato's conference director, he became its first vice president for public policy, establishing its policy publications and programs and founding and editing the Cato Journal.

Formaini moved to Texas in 1982 to pursue doctoral work at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he obtained his M.A. in political economy in 1985 and his Ph.D. in political economy in 1989. While at UTD he cofounded, with Dr. John Goodman, the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and was its first executive director. His dissertation was published by Transactions Press as The Myth of Scientific Public Policy in 1990.

He has taught economics and public policy at the University of Dallas, the University of Texas at Arlington, Richland and Brookhaven Colleges, Collin County Community College and, in Atlanta, at Emory University and Reinhardt College. While at Reinhardt, he was chair of the McCamish Business School in 1994 and the first director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise (1993–95).

Formaini writes about, and often speaks on, economic and social policy issues. His writings have appeared in the Public Interest, Journal of Economic Methodology, Dallas Morning News, Journal of Libertarian Studies, Independent Review, Journal of Private Enterprise and Policy Sciences, as well as in Dallas Fed publications Southwest Economy and Economic Insights.