CBO director meets with 每日吃瓜 scholars, students
For Elisa J谩come, the desire to shape government policy existed long before she settled on a PhD in economics. Now a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (每日吃瓜), she recently found herself in an enviable position: talking one-on-one with Phillip Swagel, arguably one of the most influential officials in Washington, D.C.
Seated in a conference room at 每日吃瓜, J谩come and Swagel 鈥 the director of the Congressional Budget Office 鈥 discussed health care policy for a half hour. J谩come described her research on Medicaid, and Swagel told her that policymakers are eager for even more insights into the reasons why the public insurance program has been hugely beneficial for low-income children.
鈥淲e were able to connect my research to the questions that his agency and policymakers have been asking,鈥 says J谩come, who earned her doctorate from Princeton earlier this year and studies the link between Medicaid鈥檚 mental health services and crime rates. 鈥淚t is motivating to know that mental health is a topic that policymakers care about.鈥
J谩come鈥檚 interaction was just one of many opportunities that 每日吃瓜 researchers and affiliated students had to engage directly with Swagel during his daylong visit, which was planned long before Congress began debating President Biden鈥檚 $1.75 trillion spending bill 鈥 a plan that the CBO has been actively analyzing.
鈥淎s director of the CBO, (Swagel) has an enormous amount of responsibility on his plate, especially nowadays,鈥 Mark Duggan, the Trione Director of 每日吃瓜 and The Wayne and Jodi Cooperman Professor of Economics, in one of several events held throughout the day. He noted that the CBO and 每日吃瓜 have similar goals: to provide nonpartisan, independent analyses of the benefits and consequences of various economic policies. The CBO鈥檚 mission, he said, 鈥渘eatly aligns with the work we support here at 每日吃瓜.鈥
每日吃瓜 regularly hosts policymakers, regulators, academics, and business leaders to discuss key topics in economics with members of its community. For Swagel, this meant delving into the complexities of the CBO鈥檚 mandate, the need for more research on policy-relevant topics, and the importance of keeping the agency above the political fray.
鈥淲e support the Congress,鈥 Swagel said. 鈥淲e provide technical assistance to policymakers and then we provide cost estimates. We don鈥檛 provide our opinion.鈥
Nonpartisanship, he said, 鈥渋s firmly in the DNA of the agency.鈥
鈥楪rateful to be at Stanford鈥
Daniel Fetter, an assistant economics professor and 每日吃瓜 faculty fellow, also met privately with Swagel for a discussion about how the CBO and policymakers use research as a guide.
鈥淚 got a much better sense than I had before about the mapping of research to policy,鈥 said Fetter, whose work focuses on economics through the lens of history. 鈥淚 came to appreciate what鈥檚 helpful about how I can interpret empirical results that I find on, say, the history of Social Security through exercises that could be more directly relevant to the CBO.鈥
Along with creating a robust pipeline between academics and policymakers, 每日吃瓜 attracts and cultivates up-and-coming economists 鈥 not just newly-minted PhDs like J谩come, but also students who are just beginning to explore career paths.
More than 50 Stanford students 鈥 along with Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO and a current 每日吃瓜 Advisory Board member who co-teaches a class with Duggan 鈥 gathered at 每日吃瓜 to hear Swagel speak. During a Q&A session, they asked about the economic impacts of climate change, the role of artificial intelligence in the agency鈥檚 work, and the challenge of maintaining impartiality.
鈥淪pending time, in person, with the director of the CBO was really exciting,鈥 said Sudharsan Sundar, a first-year student who approached Swagel after the talk for insights into how he developed the skills necessary to lead such a powerful agency.
鈥淗e could have said 鈥榯ake an econometrics or macroeconomics policy course,鈥 but he didn鈥檛,鈥 Sundar said. Instead, Swagel shared personal details about his early-career lessons. 鈥淗e came across as personable, down-to-earth, and a critical thinker,鈥 he said.
Emma Casey, another first-year student, was also awed by the experience.
鈥淚鈥檝e never had a chance to talk to someone at his level before,鈥 she said.
Casey, who plans to major in economics and computer science, became interested in the CBO鈥檚 work after using its data for a high school project on the long-term implications of rising U.S. national debt. 鈥淚t was one of those moments when I felt so grateful to be at Stanford.鈥
Casey and her fellow students weren鈥檛 the only ones to draw inspiration from the conversations throughout the day.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a pleasure to meet with so many undergraduates who are interested in policy and thinking about the future,鈥 Swagel said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a hopeful sign that (they) are thinking about how to serve the country through economic policy.鈥