Tom Hall: Why I am running for the STRS Board; Vitae

Thomas E. Hall

Professor of Economics

Miami University, Oxford

Why I am running for the STRS Board

I am a candidate for the STRS Board because I believe I have important skills to offer the membership. I hold a doctorate in economics, and have been a professor at Miami University since 1982. I have published a book on business cycles, and have developed considerable expertise successfully managing my own portfolio of stock market assets. I am knowledgeable about how the economy operates, and the factors that impact values of stocks, bonds, and real estate– the assets that constitute the bulk of the STRS investment portfolio.

I was truly outraged a few years ago when I learned that the value of STRS’s investments had dropped $12 billion. Then came the news about rampant spending by the STRS Board on trips, meals, entertainment, and art. I found myself asking the same questions I’m sure most members did: How could these things have happened? Is my pension secure?

If elected, I will do the following:

1. Focus on holding down the costs of operating STRS. This means running STRS in a financially prudent manner, minimizing overhead, avoiding administrative bloat, and not allowing board members, or anyone else for that matter, to treat the investment portfolio as a pot they can dip into as they please.

2. Intelligently oversee the management of the investment portfolio. This includes ensuring that STRS investments are safe and properly diversified.

3. Strictly adhere to Ohio Revised Code Section 3307.15 which states that STRS Board members must act solely on the behalf of STRS members and their beneficiaries.]

4. Work to find avenues which will permit the continuance of health care and prescription drug benefits at current or possibly reduced cost to STRS retirees.

5. Communicate with and be responsive to all members including retirees.

6. Support and lobby for state legislation that benefits STRS members.

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2006 Candidate for Active Teacher Member to the STRS Board

Thomas E. Hall: Vitae

Business Address: Department of Economics Miami University Oxford, OH 45056
513-529-2862 e-mail: hallte@muohio.edu

Home Address: 76 Oliver Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45215; 513-948-9983

Birth Date: January 31, 1954, Detroit, Michigan.

Marital Status: Married, one child.

Education:

Ph.D. Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara, July 1982. Fields of specialization: Macroeconomics and Econometrics. Dissertation title: "A Bayesian Analysis of Neoclassical Aggregate Investment Demand Functions."

M.A. Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara, December 1979.

B.A. Economics, University of Colorado, Boulder, May 1976.

Work Experience: July 1993-present. Professor of Economics, Miami University.

May 1988-June 1993. Associate Professor of Economics, Miami University (On leave May 1988 - August 1989.)

May 1988-August 1989. Visiting Senior Economist, U.S. State Department, Bureau of Economics and Business Affairs, Planning and Economic Analysis Staff.

August 1982-May1988. Assistant Professor of Economics, Miami University.

September 1979-July 1982. Teaching Associate, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Publications In Journals: "Price Cyclicality in the Natural Rate - Nominal Demand Shock Model." Journal of Macroeconomics, Spring, 1995, pp. 257-272.

"McCallum's Base Growth Rule: Evidence for the United States, Germany, Japan, and Canada." Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv Vol.
126 (December 1990), pp. 630-642.

"On Allocating the Variance of Output Growth to Permanent and Cyclical Components." Economic Letters, (1989), pp. 323-326 (with M.A. Fields and T.W. Fields).

"Income or Wealth in Money Demand: Comment." Southern Economic Journal, April 1988, pp. 1039-42 (with T.W. Fields).

"Anticipated Nominal Demand Shocks and the Speed of Aggregate Price Adjustment." Review of Economics and Statistics, Feb.
1987, pp. 140-4 (with T.W. Fields).

"Velocity and the Variability of Monetary Growth: Evidence from Granger Causality Tests." Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, February 1987, pp.112-6 (with N.R. Noble).

"A New View of the Market Structure Performance Debate." Journal of Industrial Economics, June 1984, pp. 397-417
(with J.L. Bothwell and T.F. Cooley).

Books:

Business Cycles: The Nature and Causes of Economic Fluctuations (New York: Praeger Publishing, 1990).

The Great Depression: An International Disaster of Perverse Economic Policies, with J.D. Ferguson (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998).

The Rotten Fruits of Economic Controls and the Rise From the Ashes, 1965-1989
(Lanham, MD: University Press of America,
2003).

Other Publications:

Book Review: Business Cycles Since 1820: New International Perspectives from Historical Evidence, by Trevor J.O. Dick, Journal of Economic History, 60 (June
2000), p 578-588.

Book Review: Economic Cycles: Long Cycles and Business Cycles Since 1870 by Solomos Solomou, Journal of Economic History, 60 (2000), pp. 931-932.

"Breakthrough Books."

Linguagranca: The Review of Academic Life, December/ January 1999.

"The Natural Rate of Unemployment," in David Glasner, Editor, Encyclopedia of Business Cycles, Panics, Crises and Depressions Garland Publishing, 1997.

"Consumption Expenditures," in David Glasner, Editor, Encyclopedia of Business Cycles, Panics, Crises and Depressions Garland Publishing, 1997.

"The Real Problem: Productivity Deficit," Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, Summer 1992, pp. 63-5.

"Rising Oil Prices Cloud Economic Outlook," The Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/20/90.

"Why do Economists Disagree?" The Deltasig of Delta Sigma Pi, May 1987.

References: Available on Request