Kevin Hassett
Chair, Council of Economic Advisers

Jason Furman (Moderator)
Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Chairman, White House Council of Economic Advisors (2013-2017)

This event has been postponed. Please stay tuned for updated information.

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Panelist Biographies

Kevin Hassett was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 12th and sworn in as the 29th Chairman on September 13, 2017.

Prior to becoming Chairman of the CEA, he was an economist at the American Enterprise Institute since 1997. His most recent titles at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) included James Q. Wilson Chair in American Culture and Politics and Director of Research for Domestic Policy. He also served as Director of Economic Policy Studies and Resident Scholar from 2003 through 2014.

Prior to joining AEI, Hassett was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business of Columbia University. He has also served as a visiting professor at New York University’s Law School, as a consultant to the U.S. Treasury Department, and as an advisor to presidential campaigns. A noted expert in the field of public finance, Hassett has authored peer-reviewed articles in leading economics journals and has served as a columnist in leading media outlets. He received his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and his PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jason Furman is Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). He is also nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. This followed eight years as a top economic adviser to President Obama, including serving as the 28th Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from August 2013 to January 2017, acting as both President Obama’s chief economist and a member of the cabinet. During this time Furman played a major role in most of the major economic policies of the Obama Administration. Previously Furman held a variety of posts in public policy and research. In public policy, Furman worked at both the Council of Economic Advisers and National Economic Council during the Clinton administration and also at the World Bank. In research, Furman was a Director of the Hamilton Project and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and also has served in visiting positions at various universities, including NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Policy. Furman has conducted research in a wide range of areas, including fiscal policy, tax policy, health economics, Social Security, technology policy, and domestic and international macroeconomics. In addition to articles in scholarly journals and periodicals, Furman is the editor of two books on economic policy. Furman holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.