Richard L. Stroup is a Professor of Economics at Montana State University and a Senior Associate of the Political Economy Research Centre. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1970 and was the Director of the Office of Policy Analysis at the U.S. Department of Interior during 1982-1984.

Widely published in the areas of natural resources and environmental economics, he has been a major force in the development of the approach to resource problems known as free market environmentalism. His recent research has focused on alternative institutional arrangements for dealing with environmental risk.

Along with Professor James Gwartney, he has written Economics: Private and Public Choice, 6th edition (Dryden Press, 1992), a widely used college level economics text, and Introductory Economics: The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (Dryden Press, 1993).

Stroup is a member of the Mont Pèlerin Society, an international organization of economists.