Robert Moffitt, the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University, will present the 11th Annual W.J. Usery Lecture on October 8, 2014, from 10:30-noon at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, 14 Marietta St., in AYS Seminar Room 749.
“Robert Moffitt will examine our complex system of income support for low income households,” says Barry Hirsch, the W.J. Usery Chair. “Based on a large body of research, he will highlight both what the U.S. welfare system does well, what it does poorly, and the many ways in which it could be improved. This lecture should appeal to audiences with a wide range of interests.”
Moffitt’s findings are slated to be published next year in an article titled “The Deserving Poor, the Family, and the U.S. Welfare System” in the journal Demography.
Moffitt’s research is in the areas of labor economics and applied microeconometrics. His research on the U.S. welfare system examines the AFDC (spell out), food stamp and Medicaid programs. His work in labor economics includes analysis of the labor supply decisions of female heads of family and the labor supply effects of social insurance programs, including Social Security, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and the U.S. income tax system.
Also chair of the economics department at Johns Hopkins, Moffitt is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Econometric Society and the Society of Labor Economists (SOLE) and a national associate of the National Academy of Sciences. He has received a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is the 2014 President of the Population Association of America.
Moffitt has served as chief editor of the American Economic Review and the Journal of Human Resources, and as coeditor of The Review of Economics and Statistics. He has also chaired the National Academy of Sciences Panel to Evaluate Welfare Reform.
Moffitt received a bachelor’s degree from Rice University and M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University. Prior to moving to Johns Hopkins in 1995, he was the Harrison Kravis University Professor at Brown.
The annual W.J. Usery Distinguished Lecture Series, inaugurated in 2005, features leading economists addressing important issues in the American workplace.
“The Usery Distinguished Lecture Series, now in its 11th year, has brought to the Andrew Young School some of the most distinguished economists studying U.S. labor market issues,” Hirsch said. “Topics addressed have included globalization, technological change, inequality, women and work, children and the environment, peer effects, data collection and measurement, and the impact of the Great Recession on labor markets.”
The series honors former U.S. Secretary of Labor Bill Usery, the Distinguished Executive Fellow in Labor Policy at the Andrew Young School, for his contributions to the well-being of workers and the American workplace during many years of service in government and the private sector.
The lecture is free and open to the public. For questions, contact Barry Hirsch at [email protected]