Sudarno is an economist and the first director of The SMERU Research Institute. His current position as a policy adviser at National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), Office of the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia shows his strong linkages to Indonesian policymakers. He holds a Ph.D. and an MA from Vanderbilt University, all in economics. He is a former head of Statistic Society Forum in Indonesia and was a visiting fellow at the Southeast Asia Forum (SEAF) at Stanford University. He has extensive experience in leading large-scale research projects, including A Study on Teacher Absenteeism. His works have been published in international peer-reviewed journals, such as Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Development Economics, and Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.