"Debating Income Inequality: What's the Problem? What's the Solution?" with Greg Mankiw and Jared Bernstein

For the past several decades, income inequality in the United States has grown significantly and has become one of the most-talked about issues among many scholars, economists, and politicians. As we soon enter into the 2014 election cycle, income inequality will surely be an important topic for the candidates to address.

However, there are many misconceptions and myths surrounding income inequality. Why exactly is income inequality a problem and what are the appropriate solutions to try to solve it? The Nelson. A Rockefeller Center, along with the Political Economy Project, is proud to welcome two leading economists, Greg Mankiw and Jared Bernstein, to debate these issues at Dartmouth College.

Greg Mankiw is a professor of economics at Harvard University, a New York Times columnist, and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush. A former graduate of Princeton University and MIT, he has taught macroeconomics, microeconomics, statistics, and principles of economics. You may recognize him as the author of your textbooks!

In addition to teaching, Professor Mankiw is a prolific writer. His research includes work on price adjustment, consumer behavior, financial markets, monetary and fiscal policy, and economic growth. His published articles have appeared in academic journals, such as the American Economic Review and the Journal of Political Economy, as well as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Fortune.

Professor Mankiw has been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, an adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Congressional Budget Office, and a member of the ETS test development committee for the advanced placement exam in economics. From 2003 to 2005 he served as Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

Jared Bernstein joined the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in May 2011 as a Senior Fellow. From 2009 to 2011, he was the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, and a member of President Obama’s economic team. Bernstein’s areas of expertise include federal and state economic and fiscal policies, income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, international comparisons, and the analysis of financial and housing markets.

Prior to joining the Obama administration, Bernstein was a senior economist and the director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Between 1995 and 1996, he held the post of deputy chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. A graduate of Columbia University, he is the author and coauthor of numerous books, including Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? Bernstein has published extensively in various venues, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, and Research in Economics and Statistics. He is an on-air commentator for CNBC and MSNBC, contributor to The New York Times Economix blog, and hosts jaredbernsteinblog.com.

Please join us for the public lecture entitled “Debating Income Inequality: What’s the Problem? What’s the Solution?” with Greg Mankiw and Jared Bernstein in Filene Auditorium at 4:30 pm on May 12, 2014.