Austan Goolsbee appointedto two key economic positions in Obama administration

New advisory board will help formulate recovery plans

Austan Goolsbee, the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has been appointed to two key economic positions by President-elect Barack Obama.

Goolsbee will serve as Staff Director and Chief Economist of the president's Economic Recovery Advisory Board and as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has been a key economic adviser to Obama since 2004.

"Austan Goolsbee brings to the process of policy formation a deep commitment to building political support for our market-based economy," said Ted Snyder, Dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "More so than any other economist on the scene now, Goolsbee has his pulse on the nexus of issues concerning what is right for the economy in the long run and what policies can be adopted now to move the country forward."

The Economic Recovery Advisory Board is a newly created body designed to provide independent, nonpartisan information, analysis and advice to the president as he crafts plans for economic recovery. It has been established to function for two years, after which time the board's continuation will be evaluated.

Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987, will serve as chair of the new board while Goolsbee will act as the primary liaison between the board and the Obama administration. Additional members will be drawn from outside the government, different parts of the country and different sectors of the economy.

Obama also plans to nominate Goolsbee as one of the three members of his Council of Economic Advisers, a position that requires Senate approval. The CEA is a group of economists who advise the president and generate economic policy.

Goolsbee has taught at Chicago Booth since 1995. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the American Bar Foundation. He is a graduate of Yale University in economics and received a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a Sloan Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar.

Goolsbee co-directs the Chicago Booth Initiative on Global Markets and served as lead editor for the Journal of Law and Economics. He specializes in the Internet, the new economy, government policy and taxes.

Austan Goolsbee Photo for Download