PROFESSOR Cecilia Rouse, who chaired the White House Council of Economic Advisers until earlier this year, will deliver the University of Glasgow’s third and final Hunter Foundation Lecture of Adam Smith’s tercentenary year.
The speech will be delivered at the British Embassy in Washington DC on Thursday, October 19.
Professor Rouse was the 30th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, having been nominated by President Biden in 2021. She was the first Black American to hold this position.
Professor Rouse will begin her new role as President of the Brookings Institution, an American public policy think tank, from January 2024. She is also the Katzman-Ernst Professor in Economics and Education at Princeton University.
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Her talk will be entitled ‘Government’s Role in Today’s Economy: What would Adam Smith Say?' The event is funded by The Hunter Foundation, a pro-active venture philanthropy based in Scotland.
Professor Rouse said: “I am delighted to be part of the illustrious global commemorations led by the University of Glasgow to mark the tercentenary of this great pioneer of modern economics. I look forward to contributing to the important conversations around Adam Smith and his ongoing legacy in today’s world.”
In her talk, she will challenge common perceptions around Smith’s ideas on the government’s role in the economy. As well as discussing how the lack of public sector involvement has exacerbated some of the challenges faced by American society, she will focus on changes in the economy that require an updated view of the public sector’s role.
As Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Cecilia Rouse was at the forefront of navigating the USA’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. In his statement following her resignation as Chair, President Biden praised the way she “provided insightful analysis, assessed problems in a new way, and insisted that we examine the accumulation of evidence in drawing conclusions. And, she’s maintained steadfast calmness through it all.”
When she stepped down last March, the New York Times reported that as a going-away present fit for an economist, her staff presented her with a chart showing every previous chair of the council, ranked according to the number of jobs created during their tenure.
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Her name topped the list. The newspaper added: "In the two years since she was confirmed to be President Biden’s top economist … the U.S. economy has created more than 11 million jobs. While that is a record for any presidential administration, it is also a direct result of the unusual circumstances of the fast-moving pandemic recession, which temporarily kicked millions of people out of the labor force before a swift recovery added back most of those jobs”.
Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, said: “It is a privilege to have Professor Cecilia Rouse deliver the final lecture in our Adam Smith Hunter Foundation Lecture series. Professor Rouse is an outstanding economist who stewarded the US economy through one of the most tumultuous periods in its history, and who has made a substantial impact in the field of social sciences and public policy.
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“Professor Rouse joins global speakers of exceptional calibre who have contributed to the dialogue around Adam Smith during his tercentenary year, demonstrating how his powerful legacy has shaped the discipline of economics and indeed society as we know it today. We look forward to learning from her.”
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Sir Tom Hunter, entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of the Hunter Foundation said: “As the founding father of modern economics, it's important we celebrate Smith’s role in the Enlightenment and learn from his legacy. It was our hope in supporting the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith 300 lecture series, that we as a nation would reassess business creation and its role in supporting the public services we all rely upon. Without the economic growth business delivers, those services, as we are already seeing, diminish and those least well off in our society suffer the most.
“This final lecture with Professor Cecilia Rouse will bring a global focus to this conversation and the Hunter Foundation is delighted to have supported this event series in reaching this global audience.”
Gita Gopinath, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Nobel Prize winner Professor Sir Angus Deaton, both delivered Hunter Foundation lectures in June for the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Tercentenary Week.
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