Background on Arthur J. Rolnick

Senior Vice President and Director of Research
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Arthur J. Rolnick is senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and an associate economist with the Federal Open Market Committee. As a top official of the Federal Reserve Bank, Rolnick regularly attends meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee—the Federal Reserve’s principal body responsible for establishing national money and credit policies. Rolnick’s essays on such public policy issues as “Congress Should End the Economic War Among the States,” “A Plan to Address the

Too-Big-To-Fail Problem” and “The Economics of Early Childhood Development” have gained national attention.

His research interests include include banking and financial economics, monetary policy, monetary history, the economics of federalism, and the economics of education.

Rolnick has been a visiting professor of economics at Boston College, the University of Chicago, and the University of Minnesota. Most recently he was an adjunct professor of economics, MBA program, Lingnan College, Guangzhou, China, and the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He is past president of the Minnesota Economic Association. He serves on several nonprofit boards including the Minnesota Council on Economic Education, Greater Twin Cities United Way, Citizens League of Minnesota and Ready 4 K, an advocacy organization for early childhood development. He is also on the Minneapolis StarTribune’s Board of Economists, and is a member of Minnesota’s Council of Economic Advisors. Rolnick’s work on early childhood development has garnered numerous awards, including those from Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, and the Minnesota Department of Health, both in 2007; he was also named 2005 Minnesotan of the Year by Minnesota Monthly magazine.

A native of Michigan, Rolnick has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in economics from Wayne State University, Detroit; and a doctorate in economics from the University of Minnesota.

March 2008