Ford School economics professor Justin Wolfers is one of the most prolific “public” scholars at the school. His analyses about current economic events regularly appear on the pages of The New York Times (among others), on the screens at Bloomberg...
Rick Scott’s (MPA ’12) journey into public service was inspired by the events of September 11, 2001. “I just remember feeling like I wanted to do something,” he recalls of his high school senior year. This feeling led him to an ROTC scholarship,...
Sociologist Jessica Gillooly (PhD ’20) has used her deep knowledge of call taking and dispatching, along with some compelling new theoretical ideas, to become one of the leading experts on this issue. Her expertise is helping inform and shape the...
You can’t get good government without good oversight.” That quote from U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) is a touchstone for the work of Ben Eikey (MPP ’19) and that of the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy, where he serves as a manager for the...
As vice president of regional initiatives for the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership, Tayrn MacFarlane (MBA/MPP ’08) unites local officials, business leaders, educational institutions, and community organizations from northern Indiana and...
When Emma Renzi Wise (BA ’19) got hooked on learning about environmental policy at the Ford School, she never imagined working for the New York City Department of Sanitation. But nearly six years after leaving Ann Arbor, Wise is the community...
If you ask Vincent Pinti (MPP/JD '27) why he entered the dual degree master’s of public policy and law program at the University of Michigan, he’ll tell you that he didn’t have a...
Susan M. Collins, former dean of the Ford School and now president & CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, made a welcome return to Weill Hall in November for a public event and lunch with students. During her visit, she shared insights into...
Over the past 32 years, Jennifer Niggemeier has been a supportive career coach and enthusiastic cheerleader for thousands of public policy students. Her influence has extended beyond individual mentorship to shape and advance programs and...
Have you ever disassembled a broken coffee maker or a sink, convinced you could fix it, only to end up with a jumble of parts? As a child, Terry Nguyen’s (BA ’25) curiosity about how things worked led to a broken fan, a pile of parts, and no idea...
The economics of tariffs is surprisingly simple: they are a tax, which raises the price that buyers pay and that competing sellers inside the country can...
Moynihan: "State capacity” is hard to define and measure, and is perhaps seen as boring, but capacity is the hidden glue that holds public policy together, or, when debased, causes public policy to fall apart. If you care about the quality of...
Cavaillé: A large and growing number of voters have found in political figures like Trump, Meloni, Orban, and Le Pen a home to express their grievances over the state of the economy, their own socioeconomic status, and immigration...
In his last public event as U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg visited the Ford School for a conversation on investments in infrastructure. Below is an excerpt from an interview with S&H....
Gerald R. Ford once said, “The global economy requires an unprecedented grasp of diverse viewpoints and cultural traditions.” This sentiment is woven throughout and embedded in who we are and what we do at the Ford...
Professor Elisabeth Gerber is the inaugural faculty director of the Ford School’s Online Master of Public Affairs (MPA) program, which will launch in January 2026. Read what she has to say about the new...
Dean Watkins-Hayes, at the Congressional Breakfast in DC, with Michigan in Washington undergraduates Ajay Morelli, Malinda Brunk, Rachel Ellisen, and Isaac Davis, and Riecker Fellow Hope Wang (MPP...
Ford School professor Justin Wolfers explained to the New York Times why the bon market sell-off is so problematic, he said, “People feel nervous about lending us money,” and more than that, “They are saying, ‘We’ve lost our faith in America and the...
As the news buzzes with discussions of President Trump’s tariffs, economists and policymakers continue weighing the potential impacts of these policies. In a new opinion article published in the New York Times, Professor Justin Wolfers argues that...
Economist Justin Wolfers says levies could have a dramatic and long-lasting impact on consumers and the U.S. economy in an interview with Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences....
"The air is thick with recession talk, and stocks are cratering. But it just may be a mirage, a refraction of partisan distortions" wrote Ford School professor, Justin Wolfers, in a recent guest essay for The New York Times."It started with a...
If Trump's proposed 200% tariffs on alcohol coming from the EU are enacted, “it means your liquor store probably won’t stock it." Noted Justin Wolfers, an economics professor at the Ford School. He told CNN that he believes the tariff “would drive...
Justin Wolfers, Ford School professor talked with ABC Australia about Trump's trade war and how other countries like Australia have yet to retaliate. Wolfers said "we haven't seen any action of non-US countries imposing tariffs on each other so its...
Ford School professor Justin Wolfers tried to explain Donald Trump's thinking on the economy. He said, "There is an underlying economics of trump, and you won't be surprised I think it's dead wrong." Wolfers said, "There's the zero sum thinking and...
“Just because folks say they’re unhappy about the state of the economy, that doesn’t mean much,” said Justin Wolfers, an economics and public policy professor at the Ford School. Speaking with Marketplace, Wolfers asserts that it's important to...
On an ABC Australia review on the current economic state of the U.S. and the outlook on what's to come for business owners and CEOs. the Ford School's Justin Wolfers stated the Trump Administration's economic policies have "raised the possibility...
