The American Economic Association and co-sponsors invite you to a luncheon briefing on
PROGRESS REVERSED: THE IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH, MORTALITY, AND POVERTY FOR PUBLIC POLICY
WHEN:  Monday, April 11, 2016 at 12:00 – 1:15 pm
WHERE:  B-339 Rayburn House Office Building
Professor Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, will discuss his research on trends in health, morality, and poverty in the U.S. and around the world. He will talk about how globalization has affected health and poverty in the U.S. and other countries.  He will also present his recent widely discussed work (co-authored with Professor Anne Case, Princeton University) on the alarming rise in death rates among less educated white men and women in the U.S.  He will explore possible explanations, as well as political and economic implications.  Together with Professor Robert Moffitt, Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. Katherine Smith, Executive Director of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, Professor Deaton will discuss the importance of data and measurement for understanding these critical emerging issues.
RSVP to jmilton@cossa.org by April 4.

Nadia Karamcheva

Analyst – Microeconomic Studies Division

Congressional Budget Office

Does Social Security Continue to Favor Couples?

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Adele Morris

Senior Fellow & Policy Director

Climate and Energy Economics Project

The Brookings Institution

Dr. Morris joined Brookings in July 2008 from the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the U.S. Congress, where she spent a year as a Senior Economist covering energy and climate issues. Before the JEC, Adele served nine years with the U.S. Treasury Department as its chief natural resource economist, working on climate, energy, agriculture, and radio spectrum issues. On assignment to the U.S. Department of State in 2000, she was the lead U.S. negotiator on land use and forestry issues in the international climate change treaty process. Prior to joining the Treasury, she served as the senior economist for environmental affairs at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the development of the Kyoto Protocol. She began her career at the Office of Management and Budget, where she conducted regulatory oversight of agriculture and natural resource agencies. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University, an M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Utah, and a B.A. from Rice University.

Dr. Morris will review recent developments in domestic and international climate policy. Specifically, she will describe the current regulatory path to reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and the potential design elements of a more efficient tax-based alternative.

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Mark Huggett

Full Professor

Economics Department

Georgetown University

Mark Huggett is a Full Professor in the Economics Department of Georgetown University.  Dr. Huggett’s research focuses on macroeconomics, inequality, social insurance, and computational methods.  He began his tenure with Georgetown in 1999, though he did pause temporarily in 2006 to serve as a Visiting Professor of Finance in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  Prior to Georgetown, he taught economics at the University of Illinois.  Dr. Huggett earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Huggett will be discussing the taxation of the highest earners in the United States.  Specifically, he will compare two schools of thought related to the identification of the revenue maximizing marginal tax rate for top earners.  The “established view”, advanced by Diamond, Saez, and others, holds that the revenue maximizing rate is roughly 73 percent.  This rate is substantially above the top rate of 42.5 percent in 2010.  Critics of the “established view”, like Badel and Dr. Huggett, argue that excessive taxation at the top end is likely to have implications for future generations.  That is, the high rates of taxation will deter future top earners from pursuing the same level of investment in human capital development.  Therefore, the optimal rate is actually much lower than 73 percent.  Dr. Huggett will present the theoretical underpinnings of both views, as well as supporting empirical evidence.

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William H. Frey

Senior Fellow

Metropolitan Policy Program

The Brookings Institution

William H. Frey is a senior fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.  He is also a research professor in population studies at the University of Michigan. An internationally regarded demographer, he is known for his expertise in US demographics and American political demographics. Frey has authored over 200 publications and several books, most recently, Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America (Brookings Institution Press, 2015).

Dr. Frey received a Ph.D. in sociology from Brown University with specialty in demography. He previously held positions at Rutgers University, the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin, and the State University of New York at Albany. He has been a consultant to the U.S. Census Bureau, a fellow of the Urban Land Institute and a contributing editor to American Demographics magazine.

Dr. Frey will be discussing his book, Diversity Explosion.  The demographic landscape of America is changing faster than most people think, as “new racial minorities”- Hispanics, Asians and multiracial Americans-comprise the bulk of the nation’s population growth, and all of the growth in its younger population.  The impact on consumer patterns, public services, politics and policies has yet to be fully appreciated.  In this book, Dr. Frey lays out the dynamics of this demographic change – across generations and geography.

“In a definitive guide to America’s demographic transformation, Frey gives us the facts and figures needed to understand how we got to where we are as a people and the even greater changes still ahead. Some books speculate about the future; this one calculates certainties”

– Roberto Suro, Professor of Journalism and Public Policy, University of Southern California

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