What’s the Next Big Economic Idea? Evaluating UBI, Job Guarantees & Others

Oren Cass
Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Darrick Hamilton
Professor of Economics and Urban Policy, The Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy and the Department of Economics, The New School for Social Research, The New School in New York
Annie Lowrey
Contributing Editor, The Atlantic Magazine
Will Wilkinson
Vice President for Research, Niskanen Center
Jason Furman (Moderator)
Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers (2013 - 2017)

Panelists Oren Cass, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, Darrick Hamilton, Professor of Economics and Urban Policy at The Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy, and the Department of Economics, at The New School for Social Research, Annie Lowrey, Contributing Editor for The Atlantic Magazine, and Will Wilkinson, Vice President for Research at the Niskanen Center joined moderator Jason Furman, Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (2013-2017), for a panel discussion to reflect on the potential of the next big economic ideas. The speakers addressed topics ranging from the benefits of a universal basic income (UBI) and a federal jobs guarantee to the advantages of wage subsidies and deregulating local land use. Additionally, they discussed the threats of automation and poverty, how big economic ideas would impact the American work ethic, and how to reorient American economic policy to focus on enabling people to find productive work and support their families.