Wayne A. Grove, Ph.D.

“Never give up your dreams” is the inspirational message uttered by Oscar winners, Olympic medalists, award-winning authors, and others in the arts, culture, entertainment, and sports markets. Those domains constitute winner-take-all markets that offer tiny probabilities of truly life-changing outcomes. The presence of those and other superstars, who enjoy fame and fortune, appears to encourage modestly-talented workers to pursue long-shot careers rather than more realistic occupational paths. Professor Grove’s current research project investigates the puzzle of why so many people gamble with their careers and make large financial investments in exceedingly risky, winner-take-all occupations.

At Le Moyne, Professor Grove teaches introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics, the economics of public policy, American economic history, and sports economics. Professor Grove has published widely in many areas of applied microeconomics in, for example, the American Economic Review, the Journal of Human Resources, Economic Inquiry, the Journal of Economic History and the Journal of Economic Education. In 2017, he published “Self Confidence and Post-Baccalaureate Academic and Labor Market Outcomes” in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

He studied abroad in Brazil during high school, in Spain during college, and did field work in Mexico in graduate school. After college, he worked in Senator Pete Dominici’s Washington, D.C. office. For fun, Professor Grove enjoys cycling around our lovely Finger Lakes region, and with his family playing tennis, cross country skiing, and gardening.