Established in 1946, the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is tasked with providing the President of the United States with impartial economic analysis and evidence-based policy recommendations. In the face of tough trade-offs and uncertainty, the CEA has helped presidents decide matters of economic policy, with ramifications for safety net programs and inequality, public health, environmental policy, and more.

Harris Public Policy and the Becker Friedman Institute (BFI) hosted a panel discussion with University of Chicago faculty serving on the CEA during the George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump presidencies for a peek behind the curtain on some of the most significant economic decisions of the last two decades.

The event featured Katherine Baicker, Austan Goolsbee, Tomas Philipson, and Michael Greenstone with special remarks by President Biden’s CEA Chair, Cecilia Elena Rouse.

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