Dr. Thomas Kemp, Economics, April 16, 2025

Dr. Thomas Kemp, professor of Economics, presents "Weak Sauce: Authenticity, Selling Out, and the Skateboard Industry - a Study in Community Resiliency."

That market-based institutions have a disruptive effect on the community is well-known by advocates and detractors. Studies have shown that a stable sense of community positively affects human well-being, growth, and economic stability. Using a combination of textual and ethnographic analysis, we examine the churn of skateboard companies over the last 50 years. We argue that the skateboard industry is a useful case study to understand the institutions that foster community resiliency – for both good and ill. This work contributes to the literature in two ways: first, by demonstrating the relationship between intangible firm value and community, and second, by bridging the gap between economic and sociological literature on authenticity.

Dr. Thomas Kemp is Chair and Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. He has held visiting appointments at Ateneo University – Manila; Kobe University, Japan; Jinan University, China; and Vietnam National University, Vietnam. He currently teaches Econometrics, International Trade and Finance, The History of Economic Thought, and Macroeconomics. Dr. Kemp earned his Ph.D. in economics in 2002 from Colorado State University and his Bachelor’s degree in 1995 from Carthage College. His ongoing research interests include non-market valuation, economic philosophy, and the economics of skateparks and skateboarding. In his spare time, Dr. Kemp can be found with his family, on a skateboard (probably getting hurt), or wasting time and money riding and repairing old motor scooters. He reports that life is good despite the concrete being very, very hard.