He previously served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and as Senior Economist with the Council of Economic Advisers, Executive Office of the President, both in the Obama Administration. His research focuses on education policy and on the labor market. His recent work includes studies of the use of student test scores to evaluate teacher quality and of the effects of Unemployment Insurance during the Great Recession. He received a Ph.D. in economics and a Masters in Public Policy, both from the University of California, Berkeley, and an A.B. from Harvard.