‘Strengthening the US Social Safety Net: What Works, What Doesn’t and What To Do About It’ with Aparna Mathur, former Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Visiting Fellow at FREOPP and a Senior Research Manager in Economics at Amazon

Date: Thursday, November 9th

Time: 12pm to 2pm ET

Location: Logan Tavern, 1423 P St NW, Washington, DC 20005

The talk will focus on the use of the US social safety net, how many people access multiple programs simultaneously, and why administrative burdens may explain the lack of take-up. Dr. Mathur will also discuss how the pandemic safety net represented a fundamental change in the level of cash supports offered, and what lessons we can learn from that experience.

Please Note: This is an in-person event.

For metro and parking details about the location, please visit the Logan Tavern website.

Please contact the NEC if you have questions at manager@national-economists.org.

About our Speaker:

Aparna Mathur is a former Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government where she is researching the US social safety net. She is a Visiting Fellow at FREOPP and a Senior Research Manager in Economics at Amazon. Aparna spent a year as a Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers during the pandemic. She joined the Council as part of the COVID-19 response task force at the peak of the crisis in April 2020 and worked with epidemiologists on the health aspects of the crisis, while also tracking the economic downturn that came with the lockdowns. Prior to joining CEA, she was a resident scholar in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. At AEI, she directed the AEI-Brookings Project on Paid Family and Medical Leave, building bipartisan momentum on paid leave, for which she was recognized in the Politico 50 list for 2017. Her academic research has focused on income inequality and mobility, tax policy, labor markets and small businesses. She has published in several top scholarly journals including the Journal of Public Economics, the National Tax Journal and the Journal of Health Economics, testified several times before Congress and published numerous articles in the popular press on issues of policy relevance. Her work has been cited in leading news magazines such as the Economist, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. She has regularly provided commentary on prominent radio and television shows such as NPR’s Marketplace and the Diane Rehm Show, as well as CNBC and C-SPAN.  She has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2005, and is currently serving on the University of Maryland Economics Leadership Council. She is also on the Board of the National Academy of Social Insurance, Simply Green and the National Economists Club.