The Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus for this post is someone who had both CEA and CIA lines on his c.v. Edgar Malone Hoover also taught at the University of Michigan and Harvard before settling at the University of Pittsburgh. A course Hoover taught during the second term of 1935-36 while an instructor at Harvard was on the location of economic activity. It attracted two graduate students. Hoover served as president of the Regional Science Association in 1962 and was an important contributor to the theory of spatial price discrimination.
Vital data for Edgar M. Hoover: born February 22, 1907 in Boise, Idaho, d. July 24, 1992 in Santa Barbara, California.
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Hoover index
It is equal to the portion of the total community income that would have to be redistributed (taken from the richer half of the population and given to the poorer half) for there to be income uniformity.
See: Edgar Malone Hoover Jr. The Measurement of Industrial Localization, Review of Economics and Statistics, 18, No. 4 (November, 1936) 162–171.
Source: “Hoover index” in Wikipedia.
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From the 1974 AEA Directory
Hoover, Edgar M., b. Boise, Idaho, 1907. Educ. A.B., Harvard, 1928; A.M., Harvard, 1930; Ph.D., Harvard, 1932. Doc. Dis. The Location of the Shoe Industry in the United States, 1932. Pub. Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, 1937; The Location of Econs. Activity, 1938; An Introduction to Regional Econs., 1971. Prev. Pos. Dir. Econ. Study, Pittsburgh Regional Planning Assoc., 1959-63, Vis. Prof. Econs., Harvard U., 1957-59. Cur. Pos. Emeritus Prof. Econs., U. of Pittsburgh, Address 15331 Bollman Rd., Saratoga,,CA 95070.
Source: 1974 Directory of Members. American Economic Review, Vol. 64, No. 5 (October 1974), p.182.
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Resignation from the University of Michigan to work at the CEA, 1947
Dr. Edgar M. Hoover, Professor of Economics and a faculty member since 1936, has resigned to accept an appointment as staff member on the Council of Economic Advisers at Washington, D.C.
Winner of the Henry Russel Award in 1940, Dr. Hoover received his A.B., A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University, and taught there for four years before joining the faculty at Ann Arbor. He has specialized in problems of the location of industry, and in 1939 was invited to participate in a conference organized by the National Bureau of Economic Research and by the New York State Planning Commission. He spent four years on leave from the University as a member of the National Resources Planning Board and the fuel-rationing branch of the OPA, and later as a member of the Office of Strategic Services.
Source: The Michigan Alumnus (427) from the University of Michigan’s Faculty History Project.
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PITT NAMES HOOVER UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR
Press Release: March 28, 1966
Dr. Edgar M. Hoover has been named University Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh. His appointment was announced today by Dr. Charles H. Peake, vice chancellor for the academic disciplines.
Dr. Hoover, director of the Center for Regional Economic Studies, came to Pitt in 1959 as professor of economics. At the inception of the Center in 1962, he was named director, a post he will continue to hold.
“The appointment of Dr. Hoover as University Professor is in recognition of his outstanding contributions,” Dr. Peake said. “He is an authority in the field of regional economics and under his direction the Center has conducted studies of national and international concern.” Among the Center’s activities have been studies of Appalachia, flood plain usages, industrial growth and potential, and new trends in urban economics.
Dr. Hoover currently is co-administrator for a $200,000 Ford Foundation training and research program in economics and demography. Under the project, employees of planning commissions from underdeveloped countries will study demography, in particular, the relation of population to economic change. Dr. Hoover has Just returned from India, where he laid groundwork for parts of the program.
Recently, Dr. Hoover published, in four volumes, the results of an Economic Study of the Pittsburgh Region which he directed for the Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association.
Dr. Hoover came to Pitt from Harvard University where he was visiting professor. Previously, he had worked with Princeton University’s Office of Population Research on a project estimating the future population of India. From 1952 to 1954, he was a member of the Board of National Estimates of the Central Intelligence Agency and between 1947 and 1951 he served as a senior staff member of the Council of Economic Advisors. He also has taught at the University of Michigan and was an economist in the U.S. Office of Strategic Services.
Dr. Hoover received his Ph.D., A.M. and A.B. degrees from Harvard. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, the American Economic Association, the Population Association of America, and the Regional Science Association. He was president of the latter group in 1962.
Source: University of Pittsburgh Press Release, March 28, 1966. Records of the University of Pittsburgh.
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Harvard Ph.D. awarded in 1932 to Edgar Malone Hoover, Jr.
Hoover, Edgar Malone, Jr., A.B. 1928, A.M. 1930.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic Geography. Thesis, “The Location of the Shoe Industry in the United State.” Research Assistant in Economics.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1931-1932, p. 120.
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Class Enrollment
[Economics] 56 2hf. Dr. Hoover.—The Location of Economic Activity
Total 2: 2 Graduates.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1935-1936, p. 84.
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RESERVE SHELF LIST FOR ECONOMICS 56—Feb. 4, 1936.
E. M. Hoover
- Friedrich, C.J., Alfred Weber’s Theory of the Location of Industries.
- Sorokin, P., Contemporary Sociological Theories.
- Semple, E.C., American History in its Geographic Conditions.
- 4. Fetter, F.,
The Masquerade of Monopoly[The Economic Law of Market Areas] in Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 38 [No. 3 (May, 1924), pp. 520-529.] - Keir, Malcolm, Manufacturing.
- Black, J.D., Production Economics.
- Weber Alfred, Ueber den Standort der Industrien (Vol. 2 only, consisting of 8 monographs by different people).
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1935-1936”.
Image Source: Economics instructor Edgar M. Hoover. Harvard Class Album 1932.