President Trump’s Economic Policy: A Conversation with Kevin Hassett, Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers

The 2018 Malcolm H. Wiener Lecture on International Political Economy
A Conversation with
Kevin Hassett
Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers
Jason Furman (Moderator)
Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, HKS

Introductory Remarks by
Douglas Elmendorf
Dean and Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

The JFK Jr. Forum aims to educate, inspire debate, and foster conversation at the Institute of Politics. Unless otherwise specified, members of the Harvard community and general public are encouraged to attend Forum events.

To learn more about events like this one, sign up for the JFK Jr. Forum newsletter HERE

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.

Douglas W. Elmendorf is Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he also serves as the Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy.

Doug Elmendorf served as the director of the Congressional Budget Office from January 2009 through March 2015. Prior to joining CBO, he was at Brookings, where he was a senior fellow, the Edward M. Bernstein Scholar, and the director of The Hamilton Project. He was previously an assistant professor at Harvard University, a principal analyst at CBO, a senior economist at the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, a deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department, and an assistant director of the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board. In those positions, he worked on budget policy, health care issues, the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy, Social Security, income security programs, financial markets, macroeconomic analysis and forecasting, and other topics.

Doug Elmendorf earned his Ph.D. and A.M. in economics from Harvard University, where he was a National Science Foundation graduate fellow, and his A.B. summa cum laude from Princeton University.