Magnus Lofstrom is policy director of criminal justice and a senior fellow at PPIC. His research focuses on crime, policing, racial disparity, and impacts of criminal justice reforms. His areas of expertise also spans issues in immigration, education, and entrepreneurship. He also holds appointments as research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Germany; research associate at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

In addition to numerous edited volumes, his work has been published in journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Human Resources, American Economics Association Papers & Proceedings, Criminology & Public Policy, Demography, Journal of Population Economics, Economics of Education Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Small Business Economics and Journal of Regional Science. His work has been cited in numerous media outlets, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle as well as National Public Radio, and he has testified in front of California's State Senate and Assembly, and the Little Hoover Commission.

He serves on the editorial board of Industrial Relations and was a member of then–California State Controller John Chiang’s Council of Economic Advisors. Prior to joining PPIC, he was a faculty member at the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of California, Irvine, and most recently at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his PhD in economics from the University of California, San Diego.