Senior Research Fellow

Derek K. Yonai serves as Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics. He is the Director of the Center for Free Enterprise and an Associate Professor of Economics in the Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise at Florida Southern College. As the Director of the Center for Free Enterprise, Dr. Yonai is responsible for developing and supervising Florida Southern’s new free enterprise education program.

He has given numerous radio interviews discussing the connection between economic freedom and human flourishing. He has also given radio interviews discussing the first sale doctrine of copyright law. He has been a guest on radio shows in North Carolina, Florida, Iowa, Colorado, and Montana.

Dr. Yonai has been recognized for his teaching earning the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award at Campbell University and the “Spirit of Inquiry Award” by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.

He conducts research in the fields of legal history, law and economics, and religion and economics. He has written for both scholarly and popular outlets. His published research discusses the economic role of property rights and the law. His popular writings deal with the importance of understanding basic economics and the importance of economic freedom.

From 2003 to 2013, Dr. Yonai was the Lundy Chair of the Philosophy of Business in the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business and an Adjunct Professor at the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University. While at Campbell he oversaw their free enterprise education program and their economics program. He also taught the school of business’s signature course, Philosophy of Business, which introduces students to the ideas of free markets, personal liberty, and limited government.

Dr. Yonai earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of California at Irvine and graduated with honors from Whittier College School of Law. In addition, he earned a Master of Arts in economics and a Ph.D. from George Mason University. While at George Mason University, he was a research assistant for Gordon Tullock.