Phineas Baxandall

Phineas Baxandall is a Senior Analyst at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, located in Boston Massachusetts, where he focuses on transportation and tax policy in Massachusetts state and local government. Previously, between 2006 and 2015, he directed the Tax & Budget program and the Transportation programs for the United States Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) and its thirty state affiliates.[1] Earlier, at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Baxandall helped direct the Taubman Center for State and Local Government.[2] and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, where he conducted research on state aid to localities, the effects of introducing legalized gambling, performance metrics for local government and other topics. He taught for eight years at Harvard's undergraduate honors program, the Committee for Degrees in Social Studies, where he won several teaching awards.

At U.S. PIRG he led research and provided strategic direction to state and federal advocacy in four principal areas. First, in authoring a series of reports on transportation trends, as well as related studies on transportation finance and the benefits of expanding public transportation and intercity rail. Second, an examination of the problems associated with corporations and individuals using offshore tax havens and exploiting other tax loopholes, as well as state and federal efforts to fix these problems. Third, work to improve transparency of government spending at the state and city level, including contracting, subsidies, and quasi-public agencies. Fourth, examination of the privatization of infrastructure and public-private partnerships, especially in transportation.

He received his Ph.D. in Political Science at MIT and his B.S. in Economics and the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University. After receiving his doctorate at MIT, he published his dissertation research as a book titled, Constructing Unemployment: The Politics of Joblessness in East and West. The research develops a theory of how unemployment has been defined differently at different times according to the interests of the state and the prevailing norms of employment. The theory is tested through comparative European polling data on unemployment and a comparative history of changing conceptions of unemployment at several historical junctures, including in communist and post-communist Hungary. Baxandall also published several academic articles and book chapters in various issues in political economy.

He grew up in New York City, where he attended the Bronx High School of Science and co-captained the school's region-leading ultimate frisbee team.

He taught economics at the University of Economics in Budapest in 1990. For the next decade in Boston, he also served as a central member of the editorial collective that managed and provided content for the magazine Dollars & Sense.

Born in New York City, he lives outside of Boston.