Senior Vice President and Chief Economist
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

W. Michael Cox is senior vice president and chief economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He advises the Bank president on monetary and other economic policy. Cox is widely published in the nation's top academic journals. In his 24 years at the Fed, he has contributed to a number of public policy issues, and his research is frequently designated as required reading for Congress.

Cox authors the Bank's acclaimed series of annual report essays on rising American living standards and the expanding global economy. These reports receive extensive attention from leading publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Fortune and Business Week, reaching an audience of over 200 million. He is a regular contributing columnist for Investor’s Business Daily.

Cox has painstakingly documented the progress in Americans’ living standards. Looking at multiple dimensions—consumption and wealth, safety and security, leisure time and recreation, working conditions, variety and choice, and more—he proves that we’ve never been better off than today. He continues his battle with economic doomsayers by championing capitalism in his book, Myths of Rich and Poor, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His understanding of technology's importance in the growing global economy inspired Wired magazine to publish a seven-page interview and later dub him a “Prophet of Boom.”

The media rely on Cox's ability to make plain sense out of difficult economic issues. He is a frequent guest on national radio, television and Internet programs, including ABC’s John Stossel program, CNN, Voice of America and National Public Radio.

Cox is past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, a CATO Institute Adjunct Scholar, senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and senior fellow at the Dallas Fed’s Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute.

University students are one of Cox's favorite audiences. He has taught economics at Southern Methodist University since 1985. His 32 years of university teaching include Virginia Tech, the University of Rochester and the University of Western Ontario.

Cox received his undergraduate degree in business and economics from Hendrix College and his Ph.D. in economics from Tulane University.