Michael Boskin

Michael J. Boskin a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Tully M. Friedman Professor of Economics at Stanford University. He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. In addition, he advises governments and businesses globally.

Dr. Boskin served as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) from 1989 to 1993, when he helped resolve the Third World Debt and Saving and Loan financial crises, and place the first effective controls on government spending while protecting the defense budget. His CEA was rated by the Council for Excellence in Government as one of the five most respected agencies in the federal government. He earlier served on presidential candidate Ronald Reagan’s Tax Policy Task Force, helping develop the policies that, during Reagan’s presidency, substantially lowered marginal tax rates, indexed tax brackets for inflation, accelerated depreciation, and created IRAs and 401Ks, the economic rationale for which was predicated on his research on the effects of taxes on saving. He later chaired the highly influential blue-ribbon Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index, whose report has transformed the way government statistical agencies around the world measure inflation, GDP, and productivity.

Dr. Boskin serves on several corporate and philanthropic boards of directors. He writes regularly on economic policy in the Wall Street Journal and on global economics in a bi-monthly column syndicated in 145 countries. He has advised four U.S. Presidents, as well as several U.K. Prime Ministers, German Chancellors, Chinese Premiers, Chilean Presidents and India’s fiscal and monetary authorities on economic policy and reform.

In addition to Stanford and the University of California, Dr. Boskin has taught at Harvard and Yale. The author of more than one hundred fifty books and articles, he is internationally recognized for his research on world economic growth, tax and budget theory and policy, US saving and consumption patterns, and the implications of changing technology and demography on capital, labor, and product markets.

Dr. Boskin received his BA with highest honors and the Chancellor’s Award as outstanding undergraduate from the University of California, Berkeley, where he also received his MA and his PhD, all in economics. Dr. Boskin has received numerous professional awards and citations.