Omar al-Ubaydli is an affiliated associate professor of economics at George Mason University, an affiliated senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, and a non-resident fellow at Trends, UAE. He is also the president of the Bahrain Economists Society. His research interests include political economy, experimental economics, and the economics of the GCC countries. Al-Ubaydli previously served as a member of the Commonwealth of Virginia's Joint Advisory Board of Economists and a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. His articles have appeared in AlHayat, The National, Forbes Opinion, and US News. He earned his BA from the University of Cambridge, and his MA and PhD from the University of Chicago.