Hiroki Tanaka received his Ph.D. degree in International Public Policy from Osaka University in 2000. Currently, he is a professor in the Faculty of Policy Studies and in the Graduate School of Policy and Management, Doshisha University.
After obtaining his doctorate, Tanaka served as a senior research fellow at PHP Research Institute, Inc., from 2000 to 2003, and as a visiting research fellow in Economic and Social Research Institute of Cabinet Office, from 2003 to 2004. He served as an associate professor in the Faculty of Policy Studies, Doshisha University, from 2004 to 2007, and a professor in the Faculty of Policy Studies and in the Graduate School of Policy and Management, Doshisha University, from 2008 to the present. In 2009 and 2010 he was a visiting professor in the Faculty of Economics of the University of Cambridge. Since 2020 he has been a member of the Board of Directors in Japan Institute of Public Finance, and an editor of Fiscal Studies(Zaisei Kenkyu)since 2023.
Tanaka has been conducting research on public economics at Doshisha University since 2004, and his research interests include fiscal competition theory, school finance, school accountability, and educational inequality.
He was awarded the Sato Publication Prize of the Japan Association of Local Public Finance in 2014.