Jim Kearl

James R. (Jim) Kearl is the A.O. Smoot Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University and Assistant to the University President for the Jerusalem Center. He is also a Senior Consultant with Charles River Associates, an international economics consulting firm. He has a PhD from MIT, a BA from USU and did a post-doc in law and economics at the Harvard Law School. He served as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger during the Reagan administration as a White House Fellow.
Professor Kearl’s professional interests focus on the applications of economics to the law and public policy. He teaches two senior-level courses in law and economics each year as well as a large-section introductory economics each semester. He has published two text books and a number of professional articles dealing with housing finance, income and wealth distribution and law and economics.
He has provided testimony in Federal and state courts and before Federal agencies on matters involving antitrust liability and damages, complex contract damages, and intellectual property damages. Among his recent cases, was an appointment as a Rule 706 court expert by Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California in the Oracle v. Google patent and copyright litigation.
Since 1989 Prof Kearl has had administrative oversight responsibilities for BYU’s Center for Near Eastern Studies in Jerusalem. Prior to his current administrative assignment, he served as the Dean of Undergraduate Education and Associate Academic Vice President at BYU. He has been on the boards and executive committees of several charitable organizations (e.g. the Ouelessebougou Alliance; the Food and Care Coalition.) His hobbies include collecting antique maps, prints, metal work and other artifacts from Jerusalem, the Middle East and Africa; travel; and cycling.
Prof Kearl served in the Southern Far East and Philippine Missions. He has also served as a bishop’s counselor twice, on four high councils, as a bishop, and as a stake president. He and his wife Linda have five children and fourteen grandchildren.