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  5. AEACGR: Committee Members

AEACGR: Committee Members

 

Louise SheinerLouise Sheiner (Chair), Brookings Institution

Louise Sheiner is the Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow in Economic Studies and Policy Director for the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution. She previously served as a senior economist in the Fiscal Analysis Section of the Research and Statistics Division at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Sheiner was also appointed as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 1996 and served as senior staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers in 1995-96. Before joining the Fed, she was an economist at the Joint Committee on Taxation. Sheiner's research focuses on federal and state and local fiscal policy, productivity measurement, demographic change, health policy, and other fiscal and macroeconomic issues. Her work has appeared in such outlets as the American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Journal of Health Economics, and National Tax Journal. Sheiner received her PhD in economics from Harvard University, after earning an undergraduate degree in biology also from Harvard.

Joe AldyJoe Aldy, Harvard University

Joe Aldy is a Professor of the Practice of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, a University Fellow at Resources for the Future, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Senior Adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. His research focuses on climate change policy, energy policy, and regulatory policy. Previously, he served as the Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Environment at the Obama White House,  as a Fellow at Resources for the Future and he worked on the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. He also served as the Co-Director of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements and Co-Director of the International Energy Workshop before joining the Obama Administration. 

Gabriel Chodorow-ReichGabriel Chodorow-Reich, Harvard University

Gabriel Chodorow-Reich is the George Fisher Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University, as well as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and member of its Conference on Research in Income and Wealth. He is also a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In 2009-10, he served as an economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Dr. Chodorow-Reich is an applied macroeconomist with research interests at the intersection of finance, labor markets, and international economics. Much of his work has been motivated by major macroeconomic developments of the past two decades, including the 2000s housing cycle in the U.S., real effects of financial-sector disruptions in the Great Recession, consequences of stock market booms and busts, the Greek financial crisis, demonetization in India in 2016, and lessons learned from policy support to businesses in the COVID pandemic. His research has been published in such leading journals as the AER, Journal of Finance, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Journal of Public Economics, and has been covered by the Economist, Financial Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. He is also the coeditor of the AER: Insights. 

Jordan MatsudairaJordan Matsudaira, American University

Jordan Matsudaira is Professor of Public Policy in American University’s School of Public Affairs, as well as a Nonresident Fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, and a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago and Philadelphia. In 2021-2024, Dr. Matsudaira served as the Deputy Under Secretary of Education with responsibility for higher education policy. He also served as the U.S. Department of Education’s first-ever Chief Economist, helping to build out its capacity to quickly compile and analyze evidence of the potential effects of education policies in such areas as loan repayment, higher education accountability, and student debt relief. Dr. Matsudaira also served as Senior Economist and Chief Economist in the White House Council of Economic Advisers in 2013-2015. Dr. Matsudaira has been a member of the faculty at Columbia University, Cornell University, and Princeton University. His research focuses on using government administrative data to understand the causal impact of education and labor market policies and institutions on the economic outcomes of low-income Americans. His research has been published in such journals as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources, and Review of Economics and Statistics.

Michael StrainMichael R. Strain, American Enterprise Institute

Michael R. Strain is the Director of Economic Policy Studies and the Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a research fellow with the IZA Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn, Germany and a research affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Strain's research and writing spans a range of areas, including labor markets, public finance, social policy, and macroeconomics. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of five books and has published numerous academic and policy articles. He has served on committees and working groups of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the National Academy of Social Insurance, where he is an elected member; and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Strain has testified before Congress; regularly appears in broadcast media, including CNBC, MSNBC, and NPR; and has published essays and op-eds in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Financial Times.  He is a columnist for Project Syndicate. Before joining AEI, Strain worked in the Center for Economic Studies at the US Census Bureau and in the macroeconomics research group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University.

James SullivanJames Sullivan, University of Notre Dame

James Sullivan is a Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame and Director of the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities, a research center that works with service providers and policymakers to identify effective and scalable solutions to reduce poverty in America. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and Medicine’s Committee on National Statistics and in 2023-25 served on NASEM’s Committee on Federal Policy Impacts on Child Poverty. In 2018-22, Sullivan was a member of the U.S. Commission on Social Impact Partnerships, an advisory committee that assisted the U.S. Treasury Department in administering the 2018 Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act (SIPPRA), which funded state and local social-service programs based on their achieved outcomes. In 2018-20, he served on the advisory board for National Poverty Research Centers of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Sullivan’s research examines the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs at the national, state, and local level. He also studies the consumption, saving, and borrowing behavior of poor households, as well as poverty and inequality measurement. His work has been published in such outlets as the Journal of Political Economy, AER, Review of Income and Statistics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and National Tax Journal.

Stephen TrejoStephen Trejo, University of Texas, Austin

Stephen Trejo is Professor of Economics, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research program in Labor Studies, and Research Fellow, IZA Institute for the Study of Labor. And, in recognition for his service on National Academies of Sciences research panels (including studies on immigrant integration and on US Hispanics) and review teams, he is a National Associate of the National Academies. His research focuses on public policy issues, including the labor market experiences of immigrants, and obstacles to the economic progress of minority groups.

Jacob VigdorJacob Vigdor, University of Washington

Jacob Vigdor is Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington, a Research Associate of the NBER, and an adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. He has extensive experience as an applied policy economist, having served as Director of the Seattle Minimum Wage Study (2014-2019), Director of the Northwest Applied Public Policy Lab (2017-2018), and in positions with other applied economic policy institutions. He is the author of the book, From Immigrants to Americans: The Rise and Fall of Fitting In, and is an External Fellow for the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration. Professor Vigdor's research addresses contemporary issues in labor and urban economics, and racial and economic inequality.  His commitment to conveying the insights of research to the policy community and the general public is evidenced by his publication of op-ed articles in top-notch news outlets.