Heather Boushey
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Heather Marie Boushey
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''Weddings/Celebrations; Heather Boushey, Todd Tucker''
accessed August 25, 2011.
(born 1970) is an American
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
. Boushey currently serves as a member of President Joe Biden's
Council of Economic Advisers The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the President of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...
.She previously was the president and CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. She has also worked as an economist at the Center for American Progress and the
United States Congress Joint Economic Committee The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) is one of four standing joint committees of the U.S. Congress. The committee was established as a part of the Employment Act of 1946, which deemed the committee responsible for reporting the current economic co ...
.


Early life and education

Boushey was born in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
and grew up in Mukilteo,
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
. She earned her bachelor's degree from Hampshire College and her Ph.D. in economics from The New School for Social Research.


Career

Boushey's work focuses on the relation between inequality and
economic growth Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy in a financial year. Statisticians conventionally measure such growth as the percent rate of ...
. She previously served as an economist for the Center for American Progress, the
United States Congress Joint Economic Committee The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) is one of four standing joint committees of the U.S. Congress. The committee was established as a part of the Employment Act of 1946, which deemed the committee responsible for reporting the current economic co ...
, the
Center for Economic and Policy Research The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is a progressive American think tank that specializes in economic policy. Based in Washington, D.C. CEPR was co-founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot in 1999. Considered a left-lea ...
, and the Economic Policy Institute. She currently sits on the board of the Opportunity Institute and is an associate editor of ''
Feminist Economics Feminist economics is the critical study of economics and economies, with a focus on gender-aware and inclusive economic inquiry and policy analysis. Feminist economic researchers include academics, activists, policy theorists, and practition ...
'' and a senior fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic and Policy Analysis at the
New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
. Boushey was previously a Research Affiliate with the National Poverty Center at the
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, often referred to as the Ford School, is the public policy school at the University of Michigan. Founded in 1914 to train municipal administration experts, the school was named after University of Mi ...
and was on the editorial review board of
WorkingUSA ''Journal of Labor and Society'', formerly ''Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society'', is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Brill covering the political economy of labour, labor movements, and class relations througho ...
and the Journal of Poverty. She has testified before the U.S. Congress and authored numerous reports and commentaries on issues affecting working families, including the implications of the 1996 welfare reform. She is a co-author of ''The State of Working America 2002–3'' and ''Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families''. Boushey was announced as chief economist on the Clinton-Kaine transition following the
Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
in July 2016. In 2019, she published ''Unbound: How Economic Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It'', which was called "outstanding" and "piercing" by reviewers and named one of the best economics books of 2019 by
Martin Wolf Martin Harry Wolf (born 16 August 1946 in London) is a British journalist of Austrian-Dutch descent who focuses on economics. He is the associate editor and chief economics commentator at the ''Financial Times''. Early life Wolf was born in ...
of the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' and '' MIT Technology Review''. She is also the author of ''Finding Time: The Economics of Work-Life Conflict'' and a co-editor of '' After Piketty: The Agenda for Economics and Inequality'', a volume of 22 essays about how to integrate inequality into economic thinking. In August 2020, Boushey was featured in a ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' article focusing on her role in the Biden presidential campaign and the work that she and Equitable Growth have been doing in the wake of
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. Shortly after Biden's victory in November 2020, it was announced that Boushey would serve as a member of Biden's
Council of Economic Advisers The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the President of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...
.


Analysis of women's participation in the labor force

In response to a series of articles in the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' that claimed that highly educated women were dropping out of the labor force because of "the motherhood movement", Boushey published results of
econometric analysis Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships.M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8†...
that showed that the opposite was true and that these women, along with women and workers in the economy as a whole, were merely suffering the effects of the U.S. recession and
jobless recovery A jobless recovery or jobless growth is an economic phenomenon in which a macroeconomy experiences growth while maintaining or decreasing its level of employment. The term was coined by the economist Nick Perna in the early 1990s. Causes Econom ...
.
Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of t ...
economists Emy Sok and Sharon Cohany found that, in 2005, the participation rate of married mothers with preschoolers was 60%, about 4 percentage points lower than its peak in 1997 and 1998. Economist Saul Hoffman found that, between 1984 and 2004, the presence of children has had a smaller negative impact on the labor force participation of all women aged 25–44 years. This finding confirms Boushey's report of a declining child penalty. However, this effect varies greatly by marital status: The labor force participation rate of ''single'' mothers aged 25–44 years increased 9 percentage points between 1993 and 2000, while the rate for single women aged 25–44 years with children aged 5 years or younger jumped a full 14 percentage points over the same period. In contrast, the labor force participation rate for ''married'' mothers increased 1 percentage point, and the rate for married women with children aged 5 years or younger was flat.


Criticism from staff

After Boushey's role in the Biden administration was announced, Claudia Sahm, a former employee at Equitable Growth, accused her of mismanagement. Sahm claimed that she had been pushed out of her job after publishing a blog post regarding
racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
,
sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primari ...
, and
elitism Elitism is the belief or notion that individuals who form an elite—a select group of people perceived as having an intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, power, notability, special skills, or experience—are more likely to be constructi ...
in economics that Boushey took issue with. Equitable Growth denied Sahm's account. Documents released by
Wikileaks WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...
mention that five former staff members cited Boushey's management as a factor in their resignations. One colleague described Boushey as "phenomenally incompetent as a manager" and others have alleged she was prone to verbal outbursts.


Personal life

On March 31, 2007, Boushey married
Todd Tucker Todd Nathaniel Tucker (born 1979) is an American academic, political scientist, and political commentator who is director of governance studies at the Roosevelt Institute, where he specializes in the study of trade agreements and international l ...
, formerly research director of the Global Trade Watch division of
Public Citizen Public Citizen is a non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas. Lobbying efforts Public Citizen advocates before all three branches of the Unit ...
, who specializes in the legal, economic, and political consequences of trade agreements, including the
North American Free Trade Agreement The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...
(NAFTA).


Selected publications

* *


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boushey, Heather 1970 births 21st-century American economists American women economists Center for American Progress people Economists from New York (state) Economists from Washington (state) Hampshire College alumni Living people People from Mukilteo, Washington Scientists from Seattle The New School alumni United States Council of Economic Advisers 21st-century American women