Ted Gayer, President of the Niskanen Center, will describe the ideas behind the emerging abundance movement and how they connect to Niskanen’s broader mission of strengthening American institutions. He will discuss which policies fall within the abundance agenda, how it overlaps with other intellectual and political movements to make government more effective and accelerate technological progress, and the political and substantive differences that shape debates within the movement. Finally, he will reflect on the central challenge of pursuing bold reforms to revitalize institutions while also safeguarding their essential role in American liberal democracy.

After his talk, he will be in conversation with the Ford School's Justin Wolfers.

Speaker Bio:

Ted Gayer is President of the Niskanen Center. He previously worked at the Brookings Institution, where he was Co-Director of the Economic Studies program from 2009 to 2013, Vice President and Director of the Economic Studies program from 2013 to 2018, and Executive Vice President from 2018 to 2022.

Before joining Brookings, Gayer was an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University from 1997 to 2003 and an Associate Professor from 2003 to 2009. From 2007 to 2008, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Department of the Treasury, and from 2003 to 2004, he was Senior Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Gayer was a Visiting Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California from 2006 to 2007 and a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute from 2004 to 2006. He has written extensively on economic issues, focusing on public finance, environmental and energy economics, housing, and regulatory policy.