Current Economic Policy Issues

Economics plays a central role in the functioning of every aspect of society. It plays this role primarily through the actions of governments at the federal, state, and local levels. Given the centrality of its role, this course will address a set of prominent policy issues where economics is at their core. We will explore these issues in detail, including their origins as policy matters, the underlying data and evidence, and what policy levers are available to deal with them. The focus will be on what the economics profession collectively understands to be true about the issue. The structure of the course will be an initial lecture on the U.S. Economy. Subsequent lectures will be standalone, taught by a subject matter expert – all of whom have a Ph.D. in Economics. Potential topics include Climate Change Economics, Healthcare Economics, Economic Inequality, Autonomous Vehicles, and many more. The topics presented will be determined by what is most topical at the time of the course.

Geoffrey Woglom is Professor of Economics, emeritus, at Amherst College, where he taught for over 40 years. During his career he has been an economic consultant for the IMF, the Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.  He received his PhD in economics from Yale University.  He is currently a Director at the National Economic Education Delegation.