Better Living through Economics
How Economics Improved the World
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 · 4 PM - 6 PM
UMBC's Economics Department presents the Mullen Lecture:
John Siegfried, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Vanderbilt University
Editor of the 2010 book Better Living Through Economics (Harvard University Press)
Economists were obviously instrumental in revising the consumer price index and in devising auctions for allocating spectrum rights to cell phone providers in the 1990s. But perhaps more surprisingly, economists
built the foundation for eliminating the military draft in favor of an
all-volunteer army in 1973, for passing the Earned Income Tax Credit in
1975, for deregulating airlines in 1978, for adopting the
welfare-to-work reforms during the Clinton administration, and for
implementing the Pension Reform Act of 2006 that allowed employers to
automatically enroll employees in a 401(k)... (link)
John Siegfried, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Vanderbilt University
Editor of the 2010 book Better Living Through Economics (Harvard University Press)
Economists were obviously instrumental in revising the consumer price index and in devising auctions for allocating spectrum rights to cell phone providers in the 1990s. But perhaps more surprisingly, economists
built the foundation for eliminating the military draft in favor of an
all-volunteer army in 1973, for passing the Earned Income Tax Credit in
1975, for deregulating airlines in 1978, for adopting the
welfare-to-work reforms during the Clinton administration, and for
implementing the Pension Reform Act of 2006 that allowed employers to
automatically enroll employees in a 401(k)... (link)
