David Merriman
David Merriman
Primary Affiliation : Co-Lead, Fiscal and Economic Policy Working Group; Equity, Justice, and Human Flourishing Working Group; COVID-19 Task Force
College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago
Skill Highlights
Researches Fiscal and Economic Policy
Advises Lawmakers
Mentors Next Generation Scholars on Evidence-based Policy Research
Revenue Forecasting
Policy Expertise
Featured Work
Why does Illinois’ Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund have a large deficit?
The economic disruption brought about by Covid and stay-at-home orders led to an unprecedented rise in unemployment and extreme fiscal …
Illinois’ Medicaid Program is Expensive, but Spending Will Be Tough to Cut
In recent years, more than one out of every four dollars spent by the state of Illinois went to Medicaid …
Milestones
EXPERIENCE &
BACKGROUND
ABOUT
David F. Merriman is the leader of IGPA’s Fiscal and Economic Policy Working Group and is the James J. Stukel Presidential Professor of Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His major area of study is state and local public finance. Professor Merriman directs The Fiscal Futures Project, which created and maintains of a comprehensive and consistently defined measure of the Illinois state budget. He has published extensively about the effect of tax increment finance policy on local economic growth and the determinants of tobacco tax avoidance. He has also studied Walmart’s impact on urban economic development. His most recent research concerns state and local business taxation.
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, MA.
Visting Fellow, 2014 – 2018.
Illinois Tax Foundation.
Member on the Technical Advisory Board, 2009 – 2015.
Economic Development Quarterly.
Associate Editor, 2015 to present.
Journal of Urban Affairs.
Editorial Board, 2015 to present.
Public Finance Review.
Editorial Board, 2006 to present.
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; M.S., 1980; Ph.D., 1983.
American University, Washington D.C.; B.S., 1976.
Engagement
World Bank Report
“Impact of Smuggling on Worldwide Consumption” - Chapter 12 of Tobacco Control Policies in Developing Countries: A World Bank Report (with Luk Joossens and Ayda Yurekli) presented at the Economists Technical Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, Nov. 22-24, 1998.
Federal Reserve Bank
Discussion of “The Local Effects of New Market-Rate Housing in Low-Income Areas” with Brian J. Asquith, Evan Mast, Davin Reed at Federal Reserve Bank/ W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research invited conference titled The Impact of Housing Affordability on Economic Development and Regional Labor Markets. February 27, 2020. Miami, Florida.
Federation of Tax Administrators
“Effectiveness of Tax Credits/Incentives” - Presentation to 2013 FTA (Federation of Tax Administrators) Revenue Estimating Conference in Springfield, Illinois session on Effectiveness of Tax Credits/Incentives, October 8, 2013
COVID Economics
“Coronavirus Economics and Fiscal Effects, Disparities and Silver Linings” - UIC Alumni Exchange, September 9, 2020. A panel of experts from the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs addressed how governments — local, state and national — can respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Recent Publications
HONORS & AWARDS
