Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D., is Herbert and Joyce Morgan Senior Research Fellow in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
Utt is a veteran of budgetary politics in Washington, having served as director of the housing finance division at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and senior economist at the Office of Management and Budget in the early 1970’s. In 1977, he became director of economic research at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts. From 1980-87, he served as associate chief economist of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to lead his Administration’s efforts to promote the transfer of some federal government functions to the private sector.
From 1989-1990, Utt served as Senior Fellow in Political Economy at Heritage before being named Executive Vice President of the National Chamber Foundation, the research and education division of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. There, he created and edited the Journal of Economic Growth, a scholarly publication focusing on free market solutions to economic development and the Journal of Regulation and Social Costs, which investigated the economic costs of government’s social regulations. He returned to Heritage in 1994.
Utt is the founder and president of Potomac Renovations, Ltd., a northern Virginia real estate and residential renovation firm. Prior to forming the firm, he served as managing director for Novecon Ltd., a Washington D.C.-based company focusing on trade and business development with East Europe and the former Soviet Union. He holds a doctorate in economics from Indiana University and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Penn State University.
