He is the author of four books, including The School Choice Wars, School Choices and Parental Choice as an Education Reform Catalyst: Global Lessons. Dr Merrifield is the Editor of the Journal of School Choice. He has also written 45 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and several book chapters in his primary teaching and research fields of education economics, urban and regional economics, environmental and natural resource economics, and public finance.
Dr Merrifield received a B.S. in Natural Resource Management from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1977, an M.A. in Economic Geography from the University of Illinois in 1979, and a PhD in Economics from the University of Wyoming in 1984.