William Horace Oakland (February 21, 1939 – September 17, 2007) was an American Economist and Economics Professor at Tulane University.
Much of Oakland's work focuses on a few key issues such as taxation, public goods, and welfare.
A prominent paper written by Oakland was Public Goods, Perfect Competition, and Underproduction.
Oakland’s analysis stated that historically high levels of unemployment and limited job mobility in New Orleans were the root cause of this issue.
According to Oakland’s study, there was a very high unemployment rate in the New Orleans area before Hurricane Katrina affected it and this was largely because of the limited job mobility caused by high concentrations of the city’s poorest people living in a few areas.