Tulane University names renowned economist Gary Hoover as director of The Murphy Institute

This article was first published by Tulane News on November 19, 2020. 

Gary “Hoov” Hoover, a prolific scholar and nationally renowned economist in the study of economic policy and its impact on wealth and income inequality, has accepted the appointment as the new director of Tulane University’s Murphy Institute and full professor in economics, effective Jan. 1, 2021.

In a joint message announcing his appointment, Tulane President Michael Fitts and Provost Robin Forman hailed Hoover as “an esteemed scholar” who will have an immediate impact on the institute’s interdisciplinary study.

“He is a national leader in the study of economic policy and its impact on wealth and income inequality. This connection between policy and equity is one that is studied from multiple perspectives by faculty across our campus,” Fitts and Forman wrote.

"The opportunity to have discussions about the most challenging economic, moral and political problems of our time is an honor that I cannot wait to begin."

Gary "Hoov" Hoover, new executive director of The Murphy Institute at Tulane

“I am thrilled and humbled to be joining the team as the executive director of the Murphy Institute. The opportunity to have discussions about the most challenging economic, moral and political problems of our time is an honor that I cannot wait to begin. The work done by Dr. Sheffrin has given me the firmest of foundations to lead us forward,” said Hoover.

Hoover comes to Tulane from the University of Oklahoma, where he has served as the department chair of economics since 2015. In 2017, he was appointed a President's Associates Presidential Professorship. This prestigious group was established to recognize those faculty members who excel in all of their professional activities and relate those activities to the students they teach and mentor.

Before Oklahoma, Hoover spent 16 years teaching at the University of Alabama from 1998-2014, where he was the William White McDonald Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow and the James I. Harrison Family Endowed Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow from 2002-2004. He served as the assistant dean for faculty and graduate student development in the Culverhouse College of Business Administration from 2005-2014.

Hoover is a member, and co-chair, of the American Economics Association’s Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession. This group was established in 1968 to increase the representation of minorities in the economics profession, primarily by broadening opportunities for the training of underrepresented minorities.

Hoover is the current and founding editor of the Journal of Economics, Race and Policy, which examines the intersection of local and global issues concerning economic conditions, race, ethnicity and gender, and policy prescriptions that address economic disparities. He served as the vice president of the Southern Economic Association from 2018-2020. He has been a fellow at CESifo Group Munich since 2010 and is a member of the Western Economic Association and American Economic Association.

Hoover’s papers have been published in the American Economic Review P&P, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Public Choice, Journal of Economic Literature, International Tax and Public Finance, Journal of Conflict Resolution and the European Journal of Political Economy.

Hoover received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1993. He earned both his master’s (1995) and PhD (1998) in economics from Washington University in St. Louis.