California's Budget Crisis: What Happened?

Michael Dardia is Vice President & Director of Research at the SPHERE Institute. His research interests cover workforce development; redevelopment; regional economics; and public finance and taxation issues. Prior to joining SPHERE, he helped start up the Public Policy Institute of California and was a consultant to the RAND Corporation. He is a member of the California Workforce Investment Board’s Economic Advisory Council, a technical advisor to the Economic Strategy Panel, and has participated in numerous other state and local government advisory groups. He edits the Growth and Employment series of the California Policy Review and writes the Regional Highlights for the Bay Area Economic Pulse. He earned his Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from the RAND Graduate School.

Thomas MaCurdy is a professor of economics at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and the Hoover Institution. He is also an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. MaCurdy’s research falls broadly in the area of human resources, with its main focus on the impacts of low-income support programs, income transfers, and tax systems on human development and economic activity. Among his current public service activities, MaCurdy serves as a member of standing committees advising the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census, the Congressional Budget Office, the Institute for Research on Poverty, and many state and local governmental agencies in California. Professor MaCurdy received his B.A. in 1973 from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Chicago.