He earned his PhD in economics at West Virginia University, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation under the guidance of Ronald Balvers. Prior to Henderson he held the rank of associate professor of economics (with tenure) at Hope College in Michigan, where he taught from 2000 to 2009. He spent a recent year as a Fulbright Scholar in Armenia giving graduate lectures and conducting research at the American University of Armenia. Claar is coauthor, with Robin J. Klay, of Economics in Christian Perspective: Theory, Policy and Life Choices (2007), and his scholarly articles have appeared in several peer-reviewed outlets, including Applied Economics, Public Finance Review, and the Journal of Markets & Morality. He recently completed work on a short book about fair trade, scheduled to be published by the Acton Institute in 2010.