Michael A. Pagano holds a B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University and in 1980 earned a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Between 1980 and 2001, he was professor of political science at Miami University and is currently professor and director of the Graduate Program in Public Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an Institute Fellow in the Great Cities Institute.

He is co-editor of Urban Affairs Review (housed in GCI), a member of the Committee for the Study of the Long-term Viability of Fuel Taxes for Transportation Finance of the Transportation Research Board, and Principal Investigator for a Pew Charitable Trust project (Government Performance Project) to grade the states on Infrastructure Management, which was released in the February issue of Governing magazine. He co-authored a 2004 Georgetown University Press book with Ann O'M. Bowman entitled, Terra Incognita: Vacant Land and Urban Strategies. With Professor Bowman he also is coauthor of Cityscapes and Capital (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995). His Duke University Press book on urban infrastructure, Cities and Fiscal Choices, was published in 1985. Since 1991, he has written the annual City Fiscal Conditions report for the National League of Cities and since 2003 he has written a column called "The Third Rail" for State Tax Notes, which examines contemporary local government fiscal issues. He was co-editor of the "Annual Review of American Federalism" issue of Publius: The Journal of Federalism from 1988-95. He has published over 50 articles on urban finance, capital budgeting, federalism, transportation policy, infrastructure, urban development and fiscal policy; delivered over 60 papers; and received funding from the Brookings Institution, CEOs for Cities, National Research Council, U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, National League of Cities, State of Ohio, and elsewhere.

His current research projects include a study of the tax structures of the nation's municipalities, an assessment of the municipal commuter tax, the spatialization of revenue structures, and issues of local government finance.