CityEconomist

CURRICULUM VITAE
EXECUTIVE AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

1992-January 2006 – OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK CITY COMPTROLLER - Chief Economist (and, in 1994-1997, Senior Policy Adviser) for three successive Comptrollers. Appointed by City Comptroller Liz Holtzman, reappointed by City Comptrollers Alan Hevesi (now NY State Comptroller) and William C. Thompson, Jr., spanning five administrations. Directed the economic and revenue unit that prepares the City Charter-mandated annual report on the state of the economy, quarterly economic updates and monthly job reports. Responsible for preparation of estimates of the economic and fiscal impact on New York City of events and market developments and responded on behalf of the Comptroller to frequent requests from the media about these subjects.

-     The High Cost of Electricity, Housing and Milk. Prepared expert testimony for the    Comptroller’s Office intervention in electricity rate-regulation and electricity-company merger cases, advocating for the needs of residential and small-businesses customers. Directed research for and wrote studies of the cost of housing and milk (2005).

-     Ireland Peace Bond as Incentives for Peace. Directed “Ireland Peace Bond” proposal to aid in economic development of Ireland after a ceasefire.

-     The Economic Impact on NYC of Terrorism, Sports, Technology, Weather, Counterfeiting. Directed research for and wrote reports on the impact on the NYC economy of the World Trade Center bombing (1993), the sports economy (1996), the software/IT industry (1999), the 9/11 attacks (2001—received Citation from the National Conference of State Legislatures), snowfall (1994), counterfeiting (2004),

-     The optimality of NYC’s tax mix (2000—published in Public Budgeting and Finance and received its Jessie Burkhead Award). This and other published reports are downloadable from http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/ under “Budget” and “Economics”.

1972-1992 – COUNCIL ON MUNICIPAL PERFORMANCE AND JTM REPORTS, President and CEO. Council on Municipal Performance: Founded and headed nonprofit organization dedicated to analysis of local government performance in the United States. Won substantial Federal (HUD and National Commission on Productivity) and foundation (Ford, Lilly, R.W. Johnson) grants to study comparative local government productivity and the merits of outsourcing government services. Wrote several books on cities and their management, published by Facts on File, Macmillan, Wiley. JTM Reports, Inc.: Headed consulting firm focused on regional and national economic development. Obtained substantial grants (e.g. MacArthur Foundation for a study of regional economic adjustment after the end of the Cold War) and book contracts from HarperCollins, Bantam, Westview and MasterMedia. Wrote, and went on book tours for six books. For Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Waterbury, VT, was the first Social Auditor and initiated the first-ever Stakeholder Report, 1989.

1967-1969 – FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION, Washington, DC. Financial Economist, GS-12, 13. Prepared a report on the quality of bank credit and articles on deposit insurance that were published. Left to teach full-time at Baruch College (see below).

1966-1967 – SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, Washington, DC. Financial Economist, GS-11. Prepared a report on the SBIC Program (SBA-assisted venture capital).

1964-1966 – FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, Washington, DC, Economist, GS-9. Made two presentations to the Board of Governors (under Chairman William McChesney Martin) on South Africa. Contributed to monthly reports to the Board on Japanese money markets.

BUSINESS-SCHOOL TEACHING

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, Stern School of Business–Adjunct Professor of Ethics in the Markets, Ethics and Law Program (2002-2007). Teaches (with Professor Bruce Buchanan) a web-assisted MBA course using cases relating to new challenges for corporate executives seeking to cope with workplace, environmental and other issues relating to corporate responsibility. Wrote an online text for the course.

PACE UNIVERSITY, Lubin School of Business–Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance (2000-2006). Teach MBA students FIN 647, "Advanced Topics in Financial Management," Summer 2006, and FIN 644, “Money, Banking and Capital Markets,” Fall 2006 every year since 2000. Teach a course to MPA students at the Pace White Plains campus on Economics of Public Administration, Fall 2006.

BARUCH COLLEGE, CUNY, Assistant Professor of Economics and Finance (1969-1973). Taught corporate finance at the undergraduate and graduate (MBA, DBA) level. Chairman, Faculty Committee on Research. Founded The Journal of Financial Education, still published.

CURRENT OR RECENT BOARD POSITIONS

Member of the Board and Treasurer of the British Schools and Universities Foundation 2002 to present. Member of the Board and Treasurer of Economists for Peace and Security 1995 to present. Member of the Board of the Schalkenbach Foundation since 2006, Member of the Board since 2000 and Past President (2002-2003) of the New York Association for Business Economics.

EDUCATION

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, Ph.D. in Economics. Awarded distinctions in international finance and money and banking. Dissertation on "Flow of Funds and Economic Development Policies in South Africa." Elected to Omicron Delta Epsilon, the national economics honorary fraternity.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY, B.A. (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), M.A.

HARVARD COLLEGE, A.B. cum laude.

PUBLICATIONS

Books: The Book of American City Rankings, Cities of Opportunity, Building a Peace Economy, Contracting Municipal Services and many more. Articles published in The Journal of Money Credit and Banking, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Risk Management, Public Budgeting and Finance (co-authored, winner of an award as the year’s best article by a practitioner), The John Liner Review and The Journal of Accountancy. The New York Times has published four of his op eds, and others have appeared in Newsday and The Asian Wall Street Journal. He publishes irregularly a general blog as "cityeconomist" and another blog on CSR.