Ralph Byrns

Adjunct Professor
Rice University
Information Economics

Prior to joining the Department of Economics as an Adjunct Professor in 2001, Ralph Byrns taught at Rice University, Clemson University, Metropolitan State College at Denver, the University of Colorado at Denver, the University of Colorado, Boulder, Loyola University of Chicago, Greensboro College, and Duke University. His primary research interests are monetary theory, financial markets, and the extension of behavioral economics into analyses of decisionmaking within firms.

Professor Byrns is the faculty sponsor of the Carolina Economics Club and enjoys discussing economic issues and talking about possible career paths with students. His textbook, Economics (with Gerald W. Stone, Addison-Wesley, 6th edition) has been used by more than one million students at over 1200 colleges and universities since 1981. The quality of his teaching in a dozen different undergraduate courses and several graduate courses in economics has been recognized with several teaching awards.

Byrns' focus on economic education is currently manifested in development for the internet of Economicae: an Encyclopedia for Economics, and Interactive Economics. He is also authoring a text for intermediate microeconomics, and editing a casebook for law and economics. He holds a B.S. from Arizona State University (1965), and an M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1977) from Rice University. He and his wife, Patricia J. Byrns (M.D., Associate Dean, UNC Medical School) live in Chatham County. He enjoys reading about philosophy and politics, plays golf wretchedly, and was the world champion backgammon player on the internet in 2002.