Research Department Working Papers
Marriage and Work Among Prime-Age Men
Married men work substantially more hours than men who have never been married, even after controlling for observables. Panel data reveal that much of this gap is attributable to an increase in work in the years leading up to marriage.
August 29, 2023
Texas natives likeliest to ‘stick’ around, pointing to state’s economic health
Based on a calculation measuring the share of people born in each state who still live there, Texas is the nation’s “stickiest” state. The natives aren’t leaving.
August 29, 2023
Recent growth of professional services jobs favors select Texas counties
Professional services jobs have grown faster in Texas than in the U.S. since 2020, partly because of business relocations to the state. This expansion has been highly geographically clustered, with 10 of Texas’ 254 counties accounting for more than 92 percent of the statewide growth.
May 16, 2023
Research Department Working Papers
Labor Market Effects of Credit Constraints: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
This paper exploits the 1997 and 2003 constitutional amendments in Texas—allowing home equity loans and lines of credit for non-housing purposes—as natural experiments to estimate the effect of easier credit access on the labor market.
February 03, 2023
Migration to Texas Fills Critical Gaps in Workforce, Human Capital
Continuing to retain working-age Texans and attract new ones from around the country and abroad is vital to maintaining the state’s workforce—its human capital—as baby boomers retire and birth rates decline.
November 29, 2022
Research Department Working Papers
A Rescue or a Trap?—An Analysis of Parent PLUS Student Loans
Parents taking out loans for their children’s college educations may face an excessive debt burden that jeopardizes their own financial security. This paper examines the experience of Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) borrowers using administrative data from a large student loan guaranty agency.
September 09, 2022
Research Department Working Papers
The Impact of Minority Representation at Mortgage Lenders
This paper studies links between the labor market for loan officers and access to mortgage credit.
June 21, 2022
Southwest Economy, Third Quarter 2021
Birth rates falling faster in Texas than U.S.
Although birth rates in Texas remain higher than in the U.S., their decline since 2007 has been particularly noteworthy.
September 30, 2021
Southwest Economy, Third Quarter 2020
Looking to economics for help in addressing enduring discrimination
Gary A. Hoover holds a President’s Associates Presidential Professorship and is chairman of the Economics Department at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. He specializes in policy analysis of income distribution and poverty, public finance and
ethics in economics. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Economics, Race and Policy.
September 21, 2020
Southwest Economy, First Quarter 2020
Policy changes could boost women’s participation in U.S. workforce
Fang Yang, an associate professor of economics at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, discusses the labor market impacts of tax policy, an evolving U.S. workforce, the effects of gender and an aging population.
April 06, 2020