Joab Corey

Economist and Lecturer, Florida State University

Joab Corey was born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, and received his B.A, M.A., and Ph.D in Economics from West Virginia University. Growing up in West Virginia, he had always wondered why his home state, which was so rich in natural resources, was consistently among the states with the worst economic development. Learning that West Virginia also had the lowest economic freedom score among all US states according to the index published in Economic Freedom of North America (Fraser Institute, 2008) inspired his current line of research examining the relationship between economic freedom, resources, and development across the United States from which this study emerged. Dr. Corey is currently a Lecturer at Florida State University, where he works in the Gus A. Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economics Education. He has also published a chapter about the destructive effects of the regulatory climate in West Virginia on business in the book, Unleashing Capitalism: Why Prosperity Stops at the West Virginia Border and How to Fix It (Russell S. Sobel, ed., Public Policy Foundation of West Virginia, 2007).

Latest Publications

• Development in U.S. States, Economic Freedom, and the “Resource Curse”

All Publications