Patrick Hoff

Senior Editor, Business & Economics and Social Sciences

Patrick Hoff, based in Boston, is the senior editor for Business & Economics and Social Sciences for The Academic Times. Prior to that, Patrick worked at the Charleston Regional Business Journal as a staff writer covering aerospace, banking and finance, real estate, and the Port of Charleston, among other topics. Patrick graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Massachusetts.

Optimistic CEOs put pressure on cash flow to reap cheaper future financing

By Patrick Hoff

CEOs with a rosy outlook of their company tend to view external funding as excessively costly and instead choose to fund current investments with the company’s existing cash balance, leading to 24% less cash on hand and lower funding levels for growth opportunities, according to new research.

Corporate charity can come at expense of workers’ wages

By Patrick Hoff

Corporate philanthropy is not as successful at attracting and motivating workers as several recent studies have shown, according to new research, with company charity often coming out of potential wages in order to avoid cutting into profits.

Diverse exports improve a country’s health outcomes

By Patrick Hoff

The complexity of a country’s economy and the mix of goods a nation produces can have a positive influence on its population’s health, according to recent research.

Critics say green policies stifle growth. The opposite may be true.

By Patrick Hoff

Environmental regulation can in fact increase worker productivity and overall capital accumulation, according to new research from Italian economists, with green taxes having the largest potential effect on productivity.

Sexual harassment hits company valuations

By Patrick Hoff

Reports of workplace sexual harassment lead to an average 1.5% decrease in a company’s market value in the days after they’re made public, with the effect “considerably amplified” by a CEO being involved, a higher amount of news coverage and an increased number of accusers, according to new research.

Stadiums, teams not an economic winner for cities

By Patrick Hoff

Despite sports teams and public officials touting the economic benefits of professional sports and new stadiums, neither major nor minor league teams generate substantial economic development for their metro areas, according to recent research in the Journal of Sports Economics.

Traditional metrics may overestimate US-China trade deficit

By Patrick Hoff

Statistics used to measure trade surpluses and deficits between countries are outdated and not useful in the modern-day economy, leading to exaggerated trade balances that don’t properly reflect how products are manufactured in the 21st century, according to new research from a Tokyo-based economist.

Economics can rebuild trust in infectious disease models

By Patrick Hoff

When some epidemiological models’ predictions failed early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, several economists took it upon themselves to use economics to improve the models and create synergies that can be used for the future.

US mask mandate could have saved 47,000 lives early in pandemic

By Patrick Hoff

A national mask mandate in the U.S. early in the coronavirus pandemic could have reduced the weekly growth rate of cases and deaths by more than 10 percentage points in late April and saved up to 47,000 lives by the end of May, according to recent research.

Pandemic could save ‘half-baked’ European monetary union

By Patrick Hoff

The first two decades of a single European currency have been marred by economic disparities, instability and crisis, but the coronavirus pandemic’s economic fallout provides an opportunity for the European Union to strengthen its monetary union with more robust fiscal policies, a former Greek finance minister and his co-author claim in a new paper.

Universal basic income doesn’t impact worker productivity

By Patrick Hoff

A universal basic income worth about one-fifth of workers' median wages did not reduce the amount of effort employees put into their work, according to an experiment conducted by Spanish economists, a sign that the policy initiative could help mitigate inequalities and the impact of automation.

Price tags ending in 9 may be fooling shoppers

By Patrick Hoff

Consumers commonly perceive prices ending in the number 9 as being low, but new research shows that 9-ending prices are often higher than others by as much as 18%, potentially leading shoppers to make suboptimal choices and impacting monetary policy.