Chris Stiffler | Colorado Fiscal Institute

Senior Economist

(He/Him)

Chris Stiffler is a senior economist at the Colorado Fiscal Institute. Chris has been working in the public policy and economic research business since 2012. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Richmond in 2009, after which he spent a year teaching high school Latin before moving to Colorado. He received his master’s degree in economics from the University of Denver. Chris got his start explaining economics in 2009, writing an explanatory economics column for his small hometown newspaper in western Pennsylvania. The column was geared at explaining complicated economic concepts in simple metaphorical terms that everyone could understand and showing how those economic concepts relate to policy discussions.

He is the author of “Economics In-Other-Words; What Your Boring Economics Professor Tried to Teach You.” Chris is also a part-time adjunct professor of economics at the University of Denver.

Chris has spent the past 10 years researching a number of topics including: affordability of public transit around Denver, better ways to measure economic growth, Colorado school finance, the Colorado state budget, TABOR, wage theft, immigration, paid family leave, minimum wage, and income inequality.

He has appeared on National Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio’s “Colorado Matters” and KGNU’s “It’s the Economy.” His research has been cited in various publications like The Denver Post, The Colorado Independent, The Denver Business Journal, and by the Associated Press. Chris is frequently invited to make public presentations on TABOR and Gallagher, the state budget, school finance, Colorado ballot issues and taxes.

stiffler@coloradofiscal.org

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