U.S. Department of the Treasury

Mission

The Office of Economic Policy is responsible for analyzing and reporting on current and prospective economic developments in the U.S. and world economies and assisting in the determination of appropriate economic policies. The Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy reports directly to the Secretary of the Treasury and is responsible to him for the review and analysis of both domestic and international economic issues and developments in the financial markets.

The Office participates, along with the Council of Economic Advisers and the Office of Management and Budget, in the preparation of the Administration's budget. Economic Policy supports the Secretary of the Treasury in his roles as Chairman and Managing Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees. The Office conducts research to assist in the formulation and articulation of public policies and positions of the Treasury Department on a wide range of microeconomic issues. Recent examples include terror risk insurance, financial disclosure and auditing, stock options, parallel imports, health insurance, retirement income security, and long-term care.

Organization

Office of the Assistant Secretary

Assistant Secretary
Michael Faulkender

Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary
Stephen Sandora

Office of Macroeconomic Analysis
Director, Samuel Brown

Office of Microeconomic Analysis 
Director, ​Christopher Soares

Macroeconomic Analysis Staff

Lani Alichi, Economist
Kathleen Byrne, Senior Economist
James Girola, Senior Economist
David Griffiths, Senior Economist
Nasir Khilji, Senior Economist
Andrew Martinez, Economist
Alexander Schibuola, Economist
Ann Sussman, Economist

Microeconomic Analysis Staff

Ted Figinski, Senior Economist

Anne Hall, Senior Economist

Mark Heil, Senior Economist

Steven Johnson, Economist

Elizabeth Sawyer, Research Assistant

Matthijs Schendstok, Economist

Neal Stolleman, Senior Economist

Hilary Waldron, Senior Economist

Support Staff

Holly Posin, Resource Manager
Linda Wooten, Executive Senior Assistant

History

The primary mission of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy is to support the Secretary of the Treasury as the principal economic official in the government. The Office utilizes economic analysis and evaluates current economic data to assist in the determination of appropriate economic policies.

The Office of Financial Analysis, the precursor to the Office of Economic Policy, was established in late 1961 to advise the Secretary on a broad range of economic problems. Its first director was Paul Volcker (1962-1963). Under his leadership the Office undertook research projects and analyzed current developments in the economy. This Office formed the basis of the new Office of the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy which was established on April 1, 1969. Dr. Murray Weidenbaum, the first Assistant Secretary, was sworn in on June 23, 1969.

Since the early 1970s, the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy has served on the Troika, the unofficial name of the interagency group comprised of Treasury, the Council of Economic Advisors, and the Office of Management and Budget, that develops official economic assumptions for the President’s budget. In addition, the Assistant Secretary advises the Secretary on the economic effects of tax and budget policy.

Since the late 1970s, the Office of Economic Policy has provided the principal support to the Secretary of the Treasury in his roles as Chairman and Managing Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees. The Secretary, along with the other Trustees, sets the short-range and long-range economic and demographic assumptions used in determining the financial status of the Social Security and Medicare programs as reported annually to Congress.

In both the late 1970s and mid-1990s, the Office of Economic Policy was an important participant in the interagency groups working on health care reforms initiated by the White House. Between 1990 and 1998, the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy had major responsibility for the analysis and collection of Treasury’s statistics on international capital movements.  The Assistant Secretary continues to analyze international economic issues as they relate to the domestic economy.

One of the responsibilities of the new Office in the early 1970s was to put together the Revenue Sharing Program whereby a portion of federal tax dollars and decision-making power were shifted back to state and local governments. Since 1987, when Revenue Sharing was disbanded, the Office of Economic Policy has continued to study state and local finance issues and produces the index of Total Taxable Resources used in certain allocations among states of federal funds for Medicaid.

Today, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy carries out its functions under the direction of an Assistant Secretary. Staff economists in two offices, the Office of Macroeconomic Analysis and the Office of Microeconomic Analysis, provide the economic analysis and often collaborate with other policy offices in Treasury, including the Office of Tax Policy, the Office of Domestic Finance, and the Office of International Affairs, on a wide variety of policy issues. The Office also works with other cabinet departments and government agencies in the development of policy.

The Office of Macroeconomic Analysis routinely monitors U.S. economic data as they are released and provides the Secretary of the Treasury and other officials with daily updates and analysis of important economic statistics. In addition, the Office of Macroeconomic Analysis regularly provides in-depth analyses of major trends and developments in the U.S. economy. It also produces a suite of yield curve data sets that are made available to the public each month, including the HQM corporate bond yield curve (as mandated by the Pension Protection Act of 2006), the TNC yield curve for Treasury nominal notes and bonds, the TRC TIPS yield curve, and the TBI breakeven inflation yield curve.

The Office of Microeconomic Analysis conducts research to assist in the formulation of Treasury’s policies on a wide range of issues. Staff economists also represent the Treasury in interagency groups studying a variety of issues, including Social Security, environmental, energy, housing, infrastructure, and labor force and education policies. The Office of Microeconomic Analysis is currently responsible for implementing the Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act (SIPPRA), which will reward states and localities for successfully addressing entrenched social problems.

Economists also monitor certain sectors of the economy; work to improve the presentation of governmental financial statements; and perform research and analysis on policy issues in financial markets.

Assistant Secretaries for Economic Policy

Deputy Assistant Secretaries for Economic Policy

Beatrice N. Vaccara (Domestic Economic Analysis) – June 1977 – November 1977 
            (Domestic Economic Policy) – November 1977 – September 1979
            (Economic Policy) – September 1979 – January 1980
Roger E. Shields (International Economic Analysis) – July 1977 – November 1977
John R. Karlik (International Economic Analysis) – December 1977 – January 1980
Richard F. Syron (Economic Policy) – January 1980 – January 1981
Stephen J. Entin (Economic Policy) – March 1981 – December 1981
            (Economic Forecasting) – December 1981 – August 1988
Manuel H. Johnson (Economic Policy) – April 1981 – December 1982
Jacob S. Dreyer (Acting) (Policy Coordination) – December 1982 – February 1984
Dallas Sanford Batten (Policy Coordination) – June 1987 – September 1988
Bruce R. Bartlett (Policy Analysis) – September 1988 – October 1992
Robert F. Gillingham (Policy Coordination) – October 1989 – May 1998
Marina L. Weiss (Health Policy) – April 1993 – January 1995
James Bradford De Long (Policy Analysis) – June 1993 – November 1993
            (Macroeconomic Analysis) – November 1993 – May 1995
Glen Rosselli (Policy Analysis) – March 1995 – May 1997
Daniel E. Sichel (Macroeconomic Analysis) – June 1995 – May 1996
Louise Sheiner (Acting) (Macroeconomic Analysis) – June 1996 – December 1996
Jonathan Gruber (Policy Analysis) – May 1997 – June 1998
Lynda de la Viña (Policy Coordination) – July 1998 – January 2001
Robert E. Cumby (Macroeconomic Analysis) – July 1998 – January 2001
Mark McClellan (Microeconomic Analysis) – July 1998 – January 2000
Douglas W. Elmendorf (Microeconomic Analysis) – June 2000 – January 2001
Kent Smetters (Policy Coordination) – June 2001 – October 2002
Mark J. Warshawsky (Microeconomic Analysis) – January 2002 – March 2004
James E. Carter (Policy Coordination) – November 2002 – May 2006
Robert Stein (Macroeconomic Analysis) – January 2004 – December 1, 2006
Nada Eissa (Microeconomic Analysis) – August 2005 – July 5, 2007
Christine McDaniel (Policy Coordination) – March 5, 2007 – January 3, 2009
Jeremy Rudd (Macroeconomic Analysis) – May 15, 2007 – May 12, 2008
Christine Dobridge (Macroeconomic Analysis – May 19, 2007 – January 20, 2009
Ted Gayer (Microeconomic Analysis) – July 6, 2007 – July 3, 2008
Aaron Klein (Policy Coordination) – April 27, 2009 – September 15, 2012
Ilyana Kuziemko (Microeconomic Analysis) – June 2009 – May 2010
Jeremy Rudd (Macroeconomic Analysis) – July 6, 2009 – July 3, 2010
John Shea (Macroeconomic Analysis) – July 6, 2010 – July 8, 2011
John Bellows (Microeconomic Analysis – October 10, 2010
            (Acting Assistant Secretary –November 2010 – September 2011)
Stephanie Aaronson (Macroeconomic Analysis) – July 25, 2011 –July 27, 2012
Stephen Shore (Microeconomic Analysis) – August 16, 2011 – June 29, 2012
Alexander Gelber (Microeconomic Analysis) – June 18, 2012 – June 30, 2013
David Arseneau (Macroeconomic Analysis) – September 4, 2012 – June 21, 2013
Elaine Buckberg (Policy Coordination) – March 25, 2013 – January 1, 2016
Wesley Yin (Microeconomic Analysis) – June 26, 2013 – January 3, 2014
Seth Carpenter (Macroeconomic Analysis) – July 1, 2013 – July 18, 2014
Gerald Cohen (Macroeconomic Analysis) – July 21, 2014 – January 20, 2017
Jennifer Hunt (Microeconomic Analysis) -- March 17, 2014 -- June 30, 2015
Tara Watson (Microeconomic Analysis) -- August 17, 2015 – November 18, 2016
Jane Dokko (Financial Economics) – January 27, 2016 – January 20, 2017
Diana Furchtgott-Roth (Macroeconomic Analysis) – July 23, 2018 - February 22, 2019