Speaker biographies

Martin Baily is a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. From 1999–2001, he served as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration and was one of three members of the council from 1994 to 1996. His research focuses on issues of financial sector reform, productivity and competitiveness, and U.S. economic policy.

Kevin A. Hassett is the director of economic policy studies and a resident scholar at AEI. He is also a weekly columnist for Bloomberg. Before joining AEI, Mr. Hassett was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at Columbia Business School. He was an economic adviser to the George W. Bush campaign in the 2004 presidential election and was the chief economic adviser to Senator John McCain during the 2000 presidential primaries and the 2008 presidential campaign. He has also served as a policy consultant to the U.S. Department of the Treasury during both the former Bush and Clinton administrations. Mr. Hassett is a member of the Joint Committee on Taxation’s Dynamic Scoring Advisory Panel. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of six books on economics and economic policy, including Toward Fundamental Tax Reform (AEI Press, 2005). He has published scholarly articles in the American Economic Review, Economic Journal, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Public Economics, and many other professional journals. Mr. Hassett’s popular writings have been published in the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, USA Today, the Washington Post, and numerous other outlets. His economic commentaries are regularly aired on radio and television, including recent appearances on the Today Show, CBS’s Morning Show, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Hardball, Moneyline, and Power Lunch.

Christopher J. Mayer is the senior vice dean and the Paul Milstein Professor of Real Estate at the Columbia Business School. He is also the research director of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research explores a variety of topics in real estate, including real estate cycles, capital markets, housing, public and private real estate values, and debt securitization. He has also written on the market for reverse mortgages, the link between local government activities and housing values, and the economics of airline congestion. Mr. Mayer serves on the board of editors of Real Estate Economics and the Journal of Urban Economics and is a fellow of the Homer Hoyt Institute. Mr. Mayer previously held positions at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He has authored many scholarly articles on these subjects and is frequently quoted in national media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, ABC news, National Public Radio, CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg.

Nicholas S. Souleles is the Michael L. Tarnopol Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on macroeconomics and household spending, saving and borrowing, portfolio decisions, taxes, and consumer credit. He has been a frequent contributor to finance and economic journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Review of Financial Studies.

Alan D. Viard is a resident scholar at AEI. Prior to joining AEI, he was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University. He has also worked for the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis, the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, and the Joint Committee on Taxation. Mr. Viard has written on a wide variety of tax and budget issues.

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