Letter from the Director

On behalf of all of those affiliated with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), I would like to invite you to find out more about our organization. Our goal is to improve economic policy through research, education, and influence.

Remarkable Contributions

Over the past 24 years, SIEPR scholars have made remarkable contributions to improve economic policies. They have served at the Council of Economic Advisors, Treasury Department, Food and Drug Administration, Justice Department, International Monetary Fund, Medicare, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission. They have played important roles in improving the tax law, in reforming Social Security, and in designing sensible energy and environmental policies. We are actively participating in the dynamic economies of China, India, and Latin America. We are involved in the important economic debates of the day, from corporate governance to Medicare reform and the valuation of the Chinese currency.

The Best Economic Talent in the World

SIEPR is a dynamic organization that has expanded its activities in the past few years. We introduced our Economic Summit in 2004 and immediately assembled the best economic talent in the world.

The first four keynote speakers were:

• Alan Greenspan,
• Paul Volker,
• Martin Feldstein,
• and Ben Bernanke.

The presenters have included:

• Tom Friedman,
• Anne Krueger,
• Steve Levitt,
• John Lipsky,
• Mario Monti,
• Bill Perry,
• Jim Poterba,
• Eric Schmidt,
• George Shultz,
• John Snow,
• John Taylor,
• and Janet Yellen.

The Summit has quickly become one of the premier economic conferences in the country and each has been oversubscribed.

Conferences - Engaging Young People

In 2006 we instituted a new conference series, Policy Forums, for Stanford undergraduates on important economic issues. We host two day-long conferences year. The first two dealt with U.S. energy policy and the economics of education. Engaging young people in the economic issues that will be confronting them for the rest of their lives is one of our primary objectives.

Expanded Teaching Role - High School through Post-Docs

Our teaching role has also increased in the past couple of years. We always have trained economic graduate students in policy research – it is part of our core mission. But, now we are responsible for the Public Policy program, giving undergraduates a chance to become policy analysts and to participate in SIEPR’s activities. We are planning to offer a new public policy masters degree for existing Stanford graduate students (law students, medical students, MBAs, education students, etc.) starting in 2007-08. With this new program, Public Policy and SIEPR will be on the forefront of interdisciplinary education at Stanford. We even are involved with the economics training of high school students in California. SIEPR Senior Fellows John Shoven and Gavin Wright run a week-long workshop for high school teachers of economics every summer. The program is free to the approximately forty teachers that participate.

Next year, we will welcome the first Searle-SIEPR post-docs in policy economics. We will provide a wonderful environment for people to launch their career in policy relevant economic research. With all of these new initiatives, SIEPR has maintained or improved its established activities. We encourage better economic policies through research and conferences. We support graduate students and young faculty in the field of economic policy research. Our monthly Associates meetings feature outstanding speakers. The attendance at those meetings has grown to such an extent that we often have to find larger venues. Our outreach through working papers, Policy Briefs, opinion columns, and the SIEPR website is more vigorous and effective than ever.

New SIEPR Building Enables Further Program Growth

The most exciting new development at SIEPR is that we are planning for the new John and Cynthia Gunn SIEPR building to be occupied sometime in 2008-09. This will allow us to host larger events, to enter new fields (such as health economics and health policy), to expand the Stanford Center for International Development, and to welcome more visiting scholars. Over the long run we will have more researchers, support a greater number of students, and have more impact in improving economic policies here at home and around the world. Both the donor support and the university support for this new building are recognition that this organization is accomplishing its core mission.

I thank all of you who support SIEPR. For those of you new to the organization, I hope you will investigate further by looking through this website, coming to a SIEPR event, and get to know our students and scholars. We would like to add you to the SIEPR family.