Biography

Professor Lardaro graduated from URI with a B.A. in Economics in 1973. Prior to teaching at URI, he was a faculty member at Florida International University. Professor Lardaro has taught courses in Econometrics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, Introductory Economics (both micro and macro), Intermediate Economic Theory (micro and macro), Labor Economics, Public Finance, Money and Banking, and Managerial Economics (MBA). The emphasis in his courses is the blending of theory with empiricism, and always, the application of economics to current events.

Professor Lardaro is the author of Applied Econometrics, an undergraduate econometrics text published by HarperCollins in 1992. He has written articles detailing the labor supply effects of unemployment insurance and has empirically analyzed various aspects of union certification elections (one of those articles was selected for inclusion into WESTLAW). His article on the forecasting of long-term interest rates was published in Business Economics, the journal of the National Association of Business Economists. His funded research has dealt with evaluating the econometric model used by the Rhode Island Budget Office, and he was one of four principle investigators for a Workforce 2000 grant, where he statistically evaluated the determinants of occupational vacancy rates in Rhode Island and he developed an econometric model of the Rhode Island working-age population. In February, 1997 he constructed a web site that contains data and analysis of the Rhode Island economy.

In 1983, Professor Lardaro was appointed to the Ad Hoc Committee to Governor Garrahy for implementing the New Workers’ Compensation Law. From 1983-1987 he was a member of the Joint URI-Rhode Island Budget Office Econometrics Project where he produced a number of technical reports that detailed methods for modeling of the Rhode Island Economy. In 1995, he testified about the economic impact of the proposed Providence Place Mall on this state’s economy to the Rhode Island House Finance Committee. That same year, he formulated and began to publish the Current Conditions Index (CCI) for Rhode Island, a monthly indicator of the present state of the economy. In 1999, he created and published the Jobless Improvement Index, a measure that gauges each state’s unemployment rate “momentum.”

Professor Lardaro has been a contributor to the Providence Business News and has written articles that appeared in the editorial and business pages of The Providence Journal. He was a member of the Family Independence Coalition that proposed welfare reform legislation in 1996. He also served on the Advisory Committee for “Critical Needs/Collaborative Solutions – Implementation of the ‘Needs for the Nineties’ ” with the United Way and the Human Resource Investment Council from 1994 to 1996. Dr. Lardaro was also a part of the Property Assessment Committee for Girl Scouts of Rhode Island and was a member of the Community Service Board of Directors for the United Way of Southeastern New England until 1999. In April 1997, he was appointed by Governor Almond to serve on  the Labor Market Information Sub-Committee of the Human Resource Investment Council. And, in May of 2008, Professor Lardaro was selected by Governor Carcieri to serve on the Rhode Island Tax Policy Strategy Workgoup.