Ben Harris
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Ben Harris: Vice President and Director of Economic Studies, Brookings
Ben Harris is Vice President and Director of the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. He was recently the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist at the U.S. Treasury Department. Prior to joining Treasury, Harris was the Executive Director of the Kellogg Public-Private Initiative and a Research Associate Professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He was also a long-time economic adviser to Joe Biden, serving as the Chief Economist to then-Vice President in the Obama Administration. He was also a Senior Economist with the Council of Economic Advisers and a Senior Economist with the House Budget Committee. Harris’ primary areas of research focus are fiscal policy and retirement. He has published papers and policy briefs on a range of topics in public finance and is regularly cited in the media. Along with Brookings Senior Fellow Emeritus Martin Baily, Harris recently published the book The Retirement Challenge proposing a new paradigm for retirement in the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from George Washington University, a master’s degree in economics from Cornell University, and a master’s degree in quantitative methods from Columbia University. He earned his BA in economics at Tufts University. In 2000, Harris was a Fulbright scholar in Namibia.