On Sept. 2, The Pelican Institute released its summer 2026 Louisiana Economic Report and it showed some really good news, including that the state is currently outperforming other states in the region. The report found, among many other things, that Louisiana’s economy grew at a 2.9% annualized rate in early 2026 — faster than Texas (+0.9%), Tennessee (+1.2%), and Mississippi (+2.5%), and the 6th-fastest in the nation. And this is just the start of the good news.
To share more, we welcome the Pelican Institute’s Senior Economic Fellow Vance Ginn.
about
Vance Ginn, Ph. D., is an accomplished economist who finds free-market solutions that let people prosper. He is senior economic fellow at Pelican Institute for Public Policy, founder and president of Ginn Economic Consulting, staff economist at Americans for Tax Reform, and contributor at multiple national and state think tanks. In these roles, Vance provides high-quality economic research and trusted insights on how to affect positive change at the federal, state, and local levels regarding responsible budgeting, poverty relief, tech innovation, education freedom, and more.
Vance also was chief economist at Pelican Institute and Texas Public Policy Foundation, and policy director for TPPF’s Alliance for Opportunity campaign, a multi-state poverty relief initiative, and served as chief economist of the first Trump White House’s Office of Management and Budget from June 2019 to May 2020. He fought and won many free-market reforms in his current and past roles. He has taught economic courses at higher education institutions, including Sam Houston State University and Texas Tech University, where he won a teaching award.
Vance has appeared on leading national and state news shows, such as “America Reports” on Fox News and “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” on Fox Business. His commentaries have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Washington Post, National Review, and other national and state publications. He graduated from home school in South Houston, Texas, earned his doctorate from Texas Tech University, resides in Round Rock, Texas, with his wife and three kids, and was a drummer for a top rock band in Houston, Texas.
