Professor • Member of the Doctoral Faculty at CUNY’s Graduate Center
Ph.D. Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1976
Fields: Public Finance, Public Policy
Office: HW 1528
Voice: 212-772-5440
Fax: 212-772-5398
Email: howard.chernick@hunter.cuny.edu
Howard Chernick is a Research Affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before coming to Hunter College in 1982, he was a senior researcher in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. From 1989-90 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation . He has been Visiting Professor at the Milano School of Public Policy at the New School for Social Research (1997-98), Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University (Fall 1999), and Invited Visiting Professor, Faculty of Political Economy, Université de Rennes 1, France (Spring 2000 and 2001). Since 1998 he has been a Research Affiliate, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Chernick is also a Member of the Board of Directors, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy – Citizens for Tax Justice .
Professor Chernick’s research specializes in the economics of the public sector, with special attention to the distributional impacts of government spending and taxation. He is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence for Applied Scholarship, Hunter College, 2005. He is actively involved in public policy in New York, serving as a consultant to the City of New York Independent Budget Office and the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. Recent research projects study the effect of Food Stamps on the fiscal decisions of states and the effect of devolution on the finances of big cities. The Food Stamp project was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the main Joint Center for Poverty Research of the University of Chicago and Northwestern. The urban public finance study was funded by the Brookings Instiution . In 1999-2000 he served as Technical Advisor for Project 2001, Financial and Fiscal Commission of the Republic of South Africa, helping to develop intergovernmental grant formulae for funding provincial health education, and welfare services.
Publications
Journal Articles
On the Determinants of Sub-National Tax Progressivity in the U.S.
National Tax Journal, 2005
State Fiscal Responses to Welfare Reform During Recessions: Lessons for the Future
(with Andrew Reschovsky)
Public Budgeting and Finance, Fall 2003
The Long-run Fiscal Health of Central Cities: The Impact of Devolution
(with Andrew Reschovsky)
Chicago Policy Review, 2000
Reprinted in State Tax Notes, November 27, 2000
Fiscal Effects of Block Grants for the Needy: An Interpretation of the Evidence
International Tax and Public Finance, 1998
Tax Progressivity and State Economic Performance
Economic Development Quarterly, August 1997
Who Pays the Gasoline Tax?
(with Andrew Reschovsky)
National Tax Journal, June 1997
A Model of the Distributional Incidence of State and Local Taxes
Public Finance Quarterly, October 1992
The Taxation of the Poor
(with Andrew Reschovsky)
Journal of Human Resources, Fall 1990
The Distributional Politics of Fiscal Adjustment: A Case Study of Four Northeastern States
(with Andrew Reschovsky)
Public Budgeting and Finance, Fall 1990
Federal Tax Reform and the Taxation of Urban Residents
(with Andrew Reschovsky)
Public Finance Quarterly, April 1989
The Tax Treatment of Health Insurance Expenditures and the Demand for Medical Care
(with Martin Holmer and Daniel Weinberg)
Journal of Health Economics, 1987