Michael J. Boskin is the Tully M. Friedman Professor of Economics and Wohlford Family Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution. He is also Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research. He served as Chairman of President George H.W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) from 1989 to 1993, where he helped resolve the Third World Debt and Savings and Loan financial crises, expand regional and global trade 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. Earlier, on Presidential Candidate Reagan’s Tax Policy Task Force, he helped develop the policies that 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 Commission on the Consumer Price Index, whose report has transformed the way government statistical agencies around the world measure inflation, GDP and productivity.
Dr. Boskin advises governments and businesses globally. He also serves on several corporate and philanthropic boards, including on the board of directors and audit committee of Oracle Corporation. Dr. Boskin received his B.A. with highest honors and the Chancellor’s award as outstanding undergraduate from the University of California, Berkeley, where he also received his M.A. and his Ph.D., all in economics. In addition to Stanford, he has taught at Harvard and Yale. 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, Social Security, U.S. saving and consumption patterns, and the implications of changing technology and demography on capital, labor and product markets.