Perspectives on the Future of Paid Family Leave

Free and open to the public. Reception to follow.

Please join us for a Conversations Across Difference event as Dr. Andrew Biggs (American Enterprise Institute) and Ford School Associate Professor Betsey Stevenson discuss their perspectives on paid family leave. 

From the speakers' bios:

Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), studies Social Security reform, state and local government pensions, and public sector pay and benefits. Before joining AEI, Biggs was the principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), overseeing SSA’s policy research efforts. In 2005, as an associate director of the White House National Economic Council, he worked on Social Security reform. In 2001, he joined the staff of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security. Biggs has published widely in academic publications as well as in daily newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has also testified before Congress on numerous occasions. In 2013, the Society of Actuaries appointed Biggs co-vice chair of a blue ribbon panel tasked with analyzing the causes of underfunding in public pension plans and how governments can securely fund plans in the future. In 2014, Institutional Investor Magazine named him one of the 40 most influential people in the retirement world. In 2016, he was appointed by President Obama to be a member of the financial control board overseeing reforms to Puerto Rico’s budget and the restructuring of the island’s debts. Biggs holds a bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, master’s degrees from Cambridge University and the University of London, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.

Betsey Stevenson is an associate professor of public policy at the Ford School, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Economics. She is also a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, a fellow of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich, and serves on the board of directors of the American Law and Economics Association. Betsey recently completed a two-year term as an appointed member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She served as the chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor from 2010 to 2011. Stevenson is a labor economist whose research focuses on the impact of public policies on the labor market. Her research explores women's labor market experiences, the economic forces shaping the modern family, and the potential value of subjective well-being data for public policy.

Hosted by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and co-sponsored by the AEI Executive Council at Michigan and WeListen.

• Betsey Stevenson
• DEI
• Andrew Biggs
• Democracy and Debate