John Raisian is the Boyd and Jill Smith Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution. He joined the Hoover Institution in 1986 as a fellow, serving as associate director during 1986–88 and deputy director during 1988-89. From 1989 through 2015, he served as the Tad and Dianne Taube Director.
He received his B.A. in economics and mathematics from Ohio University in 1971 and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1978.
He is an economist who has specialized in labor market and human resource issues, both nationally and internationally. His past research interests have included the extent of wage and employment variability experienced by the U.S. workforce during the course of business cycles and, comparatively, by the Japanese workforce; the projected impacts of proposed comparable-worth solutions to pay inequities in the U.S.; union-nonunion characteristics of labor markets; the effects of minimum wage legislation; and the incidence of disability in the U.S. workforce.
His current policy interests and expertise include the application of economic principles to public policy formation, the appropriate role of government in society, and the importance of human capital accumulation for productivity growth and economic prosperity.
