Patrick Button, associate professor of economics at the School of Liberal Arts, is studying discrimination in access to mental health care for LGBTQ+ people and marginalized communities and whether the problem has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The project, which was awarded a National Science Foundation grant, will also explore discrimination against underrepresented groups when applying for mortgages, develop new analytical tools for economics research using text data and establish a mentoring program for underrepresented graduate and undergraduate students in economics.

“Here’s what I think people at the top of the income distribution fear: they fear that if you help people at the bottom, then my share of the pie will be smaller. … But what they fail to realize is, what if the pie is actually bigger?”

Gary “Hoov” Hoover, scholar and nationally renowned economist in the study of economic policy and its impact on wealth and income inequality, is the new director of Tulane’s Murphy Institute and full professor in economics. Hoover, who stepped into his role as director in January, said at the time of his appointment, “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.”