Gary Hoover (economist)

His earlier works dealt mostly with local government operations and efficiencies. He published works examining how different cities distributed liquor licenses based on demand side factors and how different cities benefited from labor cost savings by privatizing their refuse removal services.[8] He would continue to do this local government research throughout his career. He published works examining whether student performance improved based on school officials being elected or appointed to their positions.[9] He also examined whether state level tobacco taxes were set for reasons other than maximizing tax revenue and how states determined clear indoor air laws along with laws restricting youth from tobacco products.

He also began exploring the implications of policy on poverty. This research explored the idea of whether economic growth was really associated with poverty reduction and whether robust economic growth would lead to robust reductions in poverty.[10] The results seemed to be promising for those close to the poverty line but not those further away. His work on growth and poverty led him to examine whether there were racial aspects missing from the discussion and also whether measures of poverty which were distribution sensitive, such as the Sen Index, mattered.[11]

His earlier works on growth and poverty led him to realize that the area could not be adequately addressed unless he expanded out to examine the entire income distribution and included more discussions of race and ethnicity. He would go on to publish works which examined gender differences in income inequality among immigrants and how government income maintenance programs impacted racial and ethnic groups income inequality differently.[12] Hoover would publish works on racial and ethnic differences in income inequality by region of the country and the impact of banking deregulation on racial income inequality. In 2011,[13] he published research examining the link between Economic Freedom and growth. The paper showed a positive but tenuous relationship. He would later do research examining the distributional aspects of Economic Freedom which showed no statistical gains to the lower quintiles of the income distribution.[14] He also examined whether Economic Freedom reduced or expanded the racial income gap. His research showed that the gap widened because the positive benefits were received by non-Black citizens while Black incomes were unaffected.[15]

In June 2004,[16] Hoover published an article outlining how he had been the victim of professional plagiarism of his previous works on growth and poverty. Hoover stated that the editor of the journal where he had submitted the work was unwilling to punish the plagiarist so he and his co-author did a survey of other journal editors to see if this sentiment was common. He stated that he was so shocked by the results and the thinking of editors regarding this issue that it became a field of study. Since then he has surveyed editors in other fields such as management, political science, and other social sciences. He has also surveyed rank-and-file professional economists along with rank-and-file professionals in management research.[17] He is considered a leading expert in this area and often lectures other economics departments about the issue. He sits on the RePec plagiarism board. To date, he has published 7 peer-reviewed academic articles on the subject.

• Enders, Walter, Gary A. Hoover, and Todd Sandler. "The changing nonlinear relationship between income and terrorism." Journal of Conflict Resolution 60, no. 2 (2016): 195-225.
• Compton, Ryan A., Daniel C. Giedeman, and Gary A. Hoover. "Panel evidence on economic freedom and growth in the United States." European Journal of Political Economy 27, no. 3 (2011): 423-435.
• Enders, Walter, and Gary A. Hoover. "The Nonlinear Relationship Between Terrorism and Poverty." American Economic Review 102, no. 3 (2012): 267-72
• Hoover, Gary A., and Paul Pecorino. "The political determinants of federal expenditure at the state level." Public Choice 123, no. 1-2 (2005): 95-113.
• Hoover, Gary A. "Whose line is it? Plagiarism in economics." Journal of Economic Literature 42, no. 2 (2004): 487-493.

Hoover became co-chair of the Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession (CSMGEP) in 2013. The CSMGEP has a website which lists minority job candidates in economics, publishes a yearly newsletter titled the Minority Report, and provides links and resources for making the economics profession more diverse. It also runs three programs to increase the representation of Blacks in the profession: a Summer Training Program, a Mentoring Program, and a Summer Economics Fellows Program. Yet, data compiled in CSMGEP's annual reports show that the percentage of PhD degrees in economics conferred to Blacks tends to hover around 2-3%, reaching a high of 3.9% in academic year 2017-8. Hoover has written and lectured extensively about the difficulties for African Americans in the economics profession.[18][19] In October 2020, Hoover and fellow CSMGEP co-chair Ebonya Washington pushed the American Economic Association to implement 5 new programs on diversity including an undergraduate essay prize in honor of Andrew Brimmer, a travel grant for underrepresented minorities, and a seed grant for economics departments to start programs aimed at diversity and inclusion.[20]