In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Fran Moore, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis, about what it’s like to serve as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). Moore discusses the function of the CEA within the executive branch of the federal government, the range of economic expertise within the CEA, and how economists can improve the utility and relevance of their research for policymaking.

References and recommendations:

Frontiers of Benefit-Cost Analysis from the US Office of Management and Budget; https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-regulatory-affairs/frontiers-of-benefit-cost-analysis/

“A Progress Report on Climate-Energy-Macro Modeling,” containing a memo on tools to support the management of near-term macroeconomic and financial climate risks, from the Council of Economic Advisors; https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2023/12/22/a-progress-report-on-climate-energy-macro-modeling/

“Losing Earth: A Recent History” by Nathaniel Rich; https://www.mcdbooks.com/losing-earth/

“If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics” by Marilyn Waring; https://www.marilynwaring.com/publications/if-women-counted.asp

“The Economist’s View of the World and the Quest for Well-Being” by Steven E. Rhoads; https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/economists-view-of-the-world/ABF1A4B73AA084CB909A3FF498153F16#fndtn-information