Economist, Author to Present Philip Gamble Memorial Lecture at UMass Amherst

AMHERST — Economist and author Jared Bernstein, who chaired the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden, will deliver the annual Philip Gamble Memorial Lecture at UMass Amherst on Thursday, April 16 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Bowker Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public, with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis.

In his lecture, “The Political Economy of Affordability,” Bernstein will explore affordability not simply as a problem of prices, but as a political-economic phenomenon shaped by institutions, regulation, market structure, and distributional conflict.

Bernstein is currently a senior fellow for economic policy at the Center for American Progress and a distinguished policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He led the Biden administration’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2023 to 2025. During the Obama administration, he served as Vice President Biden’s chief economist and economic adviser, executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, and a member of President Obama’s economic team.

Bernstein was deputy chief economist in the U.S. Labor Department from 1995 to 1996. He has also worked at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, and taught at Howard University, Columbia University, and New York University. He has authored or co-authored numerous books, including All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy and The Reconnection Agenda: Reuniting Growth and Prosperity.