Jay Chamberlain

 Jay Chamberlain(opens in new window), who graduated from Chico with a BA in economics in 1983, is chief of financial research at the State of California Department of Finance.  Jay enrolled at the University of California, Davis, where he earned is Ph.D. in Economics(opens in new window) in 1987.  After spending a couple years in Washington D.C. working for the federal government and a consulting firm, he moved back to California to take a job with the California Franchise Tax Board(opens in new window). Jay spent 20 years there, developing analytical tax models and managing the Economics and Statistical Research Bureau. 

Jay was promoted to Chief of Financial Research in the fall of 2010. His main responsibility was to oversee all the major revenue forecasts (personal income tax, corporation tax, sales and use tax, and others) that are used for the development of the Governor’s Budget. Besides developing revenue forecasts, his unit is tasked with analyzing tax legislation, as well as regulations and initiatives. Jay also provides technical advice to policy-makers and he testifies at legislative hearings regarding any tax proposals of the governor. His unit is also responsible for the Finance Bulletin.

In a recent email Jay stated that "The quantitative, analytical, and writing skills that I developed at Chico are very important in my current position. While I did go on to get my PhD at UC Davis, I find that most of the economics questions I have to answer (as opposed to tax-law questions) relate back to things I learned at Chico. In my role in training staff and advising policy makers, most of the issues I deal with come back to basic concepts like opportunity costs, externalities, and standard methods of quantitative analysis. While I enjoyed all my economics coursework at Chico, I am particularly indebted to John Eckalbar, Michael Perelman, and Robert Fischer, both for what I learned in their classes and for their enthusiastic encouragement for me to pursue further education and a career in economics."  (Last Updated 04/04/2014)