Thomas MaCurdy holds a joint appointment as a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor of economics at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1978. He is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research, an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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. His studies uncover consequential empirical findings relevant for the design of public assistance policies, including such programs as welfare, food stamps, child support, foster care, low-skilled training, earned income tax credit, minimum wages, unemployment compensation, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other government aid for health care. MaCurdy's research addresses the determinants of participation, the characteristics and behavioral patterns of beneficiaries, influences on work disincentives, and how policies contribute to the well-being of program recipients.

MaCurdy is an elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists.

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. He was the director of the American Economic Association Summer Minority Program during 1991–1995. He has served in an editorial capacity for several professional journals (Econometrica, Labour Economics, Journal of Econometrics, Review of Economics and Statistics) and is currently the executive editor of the California Policy Review.

MaCurdy has authored/coauthored numerous articles and monographs published in both economics journals and general-interest public policy volumes. His recent work includes "Measuring the Influence of Unemployment Insurance on Unemployment Experiences" (in the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics), 1997; "An Economic Framework for Assessing the Fiscal Impacts of Immigration" (in the National Academy volume Costs and Benefits of Immigration), 1997; "Who Will Be Affected by Welfare Reform in California?" 1997; "Reform Reversed? The Restoration of Welfare Benefits to Immigrants in California," 1998; "Medical Care at the End of Life: Diseases, Treatment Patterns, and Costs Persistence of Medicare Expenditures among Elderly Beneficiaries" (in Frontiers in Health Policy Research), 1999; "California's Winners and Losers: The Distributional Effect of the Minimum Wage on California Families," 2000; "The Rise and Fall of California's Welfare Caseload: Types and Regions," 1980–1999, 2000; "How Does a Community's Demographic Composition Alter Its Fiscal Burdens?" (in Demography and Fiscal Policy), 2001; "Winners and Losers of Federal and State Minimum Wages," 2001; "Asset Allocation and Risk Allocation: Can Social Security Improve Its Solvency Problem by Investing in Private Securities? (in Risk Aspects of Investment-Based Social Security Reform), 2001; "Does California's Welfare Policy Explain the Slower Decline of Its Caseload?" 2002; "Evaluating State EITC Options for California," 2002; and "Helping Working-Poor Families: Advantages of Wage-Based Tax Credits over the EITC and Minimum Wages," 2002.

MaCurdy received his B.A. in 1973 from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Chicago. He lives in Stanford with his wife and three sons.

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