Ryan Bourne occupies the R. Evan Scharf Chair for the Public Understanding of Economics at the Cato Institute and is a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and ConservativeHome. He has written on a number of economic issues, including fiscal policy, inequality, price and wage controls, and infrastructure spending, and has contributed to numerous books, including: Flaws and Ceilings: Price Controls and the Damage they Cause; Taxation, Spending, and Economic Growth; and A Fiscal Cliff: New Perspectives on the U.S. Federal Debt Crisis. He is coauthor, along with Kwasi Kwarteng and Jonathan Dupont, of A Time for Choosing: Free Enterprise in Twenty-First Century Britain.

Before joining Cato, Bourne was Head of Public Policy at the Institute of Economic Affairs and Head of Economic Research at the Centre for Policy Studies (both in the UK). He has extensive broadcast and print media experience, and has appeared on BBC News, CNN, Sky News, CNBC, and Fox Business Network. Bourne holds a BA and an MPhil in economics from the University of Cambridge.