Ben Harris is the Vice President and Director of the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. He was recently the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist at the U.S. Treasury Department.

Prior to joining Treasury, Harris was the Executive Director of the Kellogg Public-Private Initiative and a Research Associate Professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He was a long-time economic adviser to Joe Biden, serving as the Chief Economist to then-Vice President Biden and later as the senior economic adviser to the Biden campaign. He was also a Senior Economist with the Council of Economic Advisers and Senior Economist with the House Budget Committee.

Harris’ primary areas of research focus are fiscal policy and retirement, and has published papers and policy briefs on a range of topics in public finance. He is regularly cited in the media and is a frequent commentator on macroeconomics and economic policy in prominent media outlets. Along with Brookings Senior Fellow Emeritus Martin Baily, Harris recently published the book The Retirement Challenge proposing a new paradigm for retirement in the United States.

He holds a Ph.D. in economics from George Washington University, a master’s degree in economics from Cornell University, and a master’s degree in quantitative methods from Columbia University. He earned his BA in economics at Tufts University. In 2000, Harris was a Fulbright scholar in Namibia.