Kent Smetters is an academic, entrepreneur, and former government official.

Early years

Smetters was raised in Ohio. He received his bachelor's degrees in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

from the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in 1990, and master's and PhD degrees in economics from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1992 and 1995 respectively.

Career

Academics

Smetters is a professor of

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

and risk management at the University of Pennsylvania's

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

and the Joseph E. and Ruth E. Boettner Professor of Financial Gerontology. Financial gerontology is the study of aging and related financial and business impacts, applying the functionality of gerontology to the concepts of financial planning. Smetters has written on government

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The ...

and

Social Security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

policy and has a strong interest in financial planning, analyzing relationships between the economic well-being of the elderly and their social, legal, psychological, physical, and environmental well-being. Smetters has also written about the need for insurance industry reform and supports the notion that the private sector should provide

terrorism insurance Terrorism insurance is insurance purchased by property owners to cover their potential losses and liabilities that might occur due to terrorist activities. It is considered to be a difficult product for insurance companies, as the odds of terroris ...

or protection instead of government. He has held visiting appointments with the Department of Economics at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. Smetters has also published several papers and chapters with the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...

, where he continues to be a research associate in public economics and faculty research fellow for the Aging Program. Since 2000, he has been with the Michigan Retirement Research Center as a research associate.

Government and policy

From 1995 to 1999, Smetters was an economist at the

Congressional Budget Office The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government that provides budget and economic information to Congress. Inspired by California's Legislative Analyst's Office that manages ...

. In 1999, he served as a consultant for the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

. He became deputy assistant secretary for economic policy of the

United States Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

in 2001, where he stayed on for another year as a consultant. He was also a member of the Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Dynamic Scoring,

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

from 2002 to 2003. He is a visiting scholar of the

American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. ...

for public policy research.

RotoHog

He co-founded Sports Composite DE, Inc. with

David Wu David Wu (born April 8, 1955) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1999 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. As a child of immigrants from Taiwan, Wu was the first Taiwanese American to serve in ...

in 2006, which developed the

RotoHog RotoHog was the consumer facing fantasy sports website for Fastpoint Games, a digital platform developer that designed, implemented and marketed fantasy services for media and advertising partners. The company built, delivered, and managed co-br ...

fantasy sports game. RotoHog is a digital platform developer that designs, implements and markets fantasy services for media and advertising partners. The company builds, delivers and manages co-branded fantasy sports games for major media companies, sports companies and professional sports leagues. RotoHog is also the provider of nba.com's NBA Stock Exchange and commissioner games. In 2009, RotoHog began to provide games for Fox Sports in Spanish and the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball tour. Smetters is no longer with the company but serves on the board of advisors.

Veritat Advisors, Inc

After several years in the financial industry, Smetters co-founded the company Veritat Advisors. Smetters is the president of Veritat Advisors. Veritat positions itself as one of the first financial advisory firms to deliver full-service and objective

financial planning In general usage, a financial plan is a comprehensive evaluation of an individual's current pay and future financial state by using current known variables to predict future income, asset values and withdrawal plans. This often includes a bu ...

at an affordable price. A key competitive feature of Veritat is its simple and transparent pricing.Low-Cost Financial Planning: The Next Wave
retrieved August 7, 2010

Awards and recognitions

Awards

* Fellowship, National Science Foundation, 1990–93; * TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson, Certificate of Excellence, 2002; * Robert C. Witt Award for the best paper published in the Journal of Risk and Insurance, 2000

Works

Publications

* Ricardian Equivalence: Long-Run Leviathan. (Journal of Public Economics 73: 395-421, 1999). * Co-author of Privatizing Social Security in the U.S. — Comparing the Options. (Review of Economic Dynamics 2: 532-574, 1999). * Co-author of Simulating Fundamental Tax Reform in the U.S. (American Economic Review 91.3: 574-595 June, 2001). * The Dynamic Properties of the Neoclassical Growth Model with CES Production. (Review of Economic Dynamics 6,3: 697-707 2003). * Co-author of Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: New Budget Measures for New Budget Priorities (American Enterprise Institute Press, 2003) * Co-editor with Dr. Olivia Mitchell, of The Pension Challenge: Risk Transfers and Retirement Income Security (Oxford University Press, 2004). * Co-author of Opting Out of Social Security (Journal of Public Economics 88: 1295-1306, 2004). * Co-author of Consumption Taxes, Risk Sharing and Economic Efficiency (Journal of Political Economy 113(5): 1088–1115, October 2005). * Sharing Financial Risks across Non-Trading Generations: A Decentralized Alternative to Government Ownership of Private Equities (Journal of Monetary Economics 53(7),2006) * The Optimal Design of Social Security Benefits (Michigan Retirement Research Center, Paper No. 2008-197, September 2008) * He has written extensively for The Wall Street Journal and other public media, in addition to dozens of academic research papers and book chapters.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smetters, Kent 21st-century American economists Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni Harvard University alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people)