Jack W. Hou is Professor of Economics at California State University, Long Beach.  He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1989. 

He was President of the Chinese Economists Society (CES) in 2007-08.  He was President of the Western Social Science Association (USA) in 2010-11, and also an officer of the Western Economic Association (USA).  He was the senior coeditor of the Contemporary Economic Policy (a publication of the Western Economic Association) till 2010, and was re-appointed as the Specialized Co-Editor of the Contemporary Economic Policy in 2014.  He has served as an Associate Editor for Economic Modeling since 2018, and on the editorial board of numerous economic journals. 

He has been a visiting professor at Purdue University, Soochow University (Taiwan), and UCLA.  He has been a Research Fellow at the Teaching and Learning Institute (USA), and the China Enterprise Institute (Taiwan). 

He is a Visiting Professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, University Fellow Professor at Nankai University, Adjunct Chair Professor at Jinan University, among others.

He has been the keynote speaker (either at the opening ceremony or closing ceremony) at various conferences in the U.S., Germany, France, Czech Republic, Japan, and China.

He has published extensively in refereed journals in North America, Europe, and in Asia; and contributed Chapters to many books.  His research focuses on the Chinese Economy (Labor, Aging, Trade, and Political Economy), Labor Economics, International Trade/Finance, and Economic History.  His most recent interest has shifted to environment, sustainability, and finance.