Tomas J. Philipson is a Swedish-born American economist who served as the Acting Chairman of the

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 ...

in the Trump administration. He departed from the position and the Council at the end of June, 2020, to return to the University of Chicago.Costa, Robert, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Jeff Stein
"A second senior economist is abruptly leaving the White House amid ongoing economic crisis"
''Washington Post'', June 24, 2020. Retrieved 2020-06-24. He holds the Daniel Levin Chair in Public Policy at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, with posts in the

Harris School of Public Policy Studies The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, also referred to as "Harris Public Policy," is the public policy school of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located on the University's main campus in H ...

, Department of Economics, and the Law School. He was a Director of the

Becker Friedman Institute The Gary Becker Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics is a collaborative, cross-disciplinary center for research in economics. The institute was established at the University of Chicago in June 2011. It brought together the activit ...

at the university. In August 2017 he was appointed by President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

to become one of three members of the

. While Acting Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Philipson downplayed the public health risk and economic threat of the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, going so far as to question the wearing of masks to slow transmission of the disease.

Education

Philipson was born and raised in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, where he obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

. After earning his MA in mathematics at the

Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges which includes five undergraduate (Pomona College, Claremont McKenna Co ...

, he went on to receive his MA and PhD in economics from the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania 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 university, private Ivy League rese ...

Career

Academia

After receiving his PhD, he joined the University of Chicago as a postdoctoral fellow and thereafter joined the faculty. He has been a visiting faculty member at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

and a visiting fellow at

The World Bank The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Grou ...

. Philipson is a co-founder of Precision Health Economics, a healthcare consulting firm that was headquartered in Los Angeles. It was sold in 2015. Philipson is a founding editor of the journal Forums for Health Economics & Policy of

Bepress Bepress is a commercial, academic software firm owned by RELX Group. It began in 1999 as the Berkeley Electronic Press, co-founded by academics Robert Cooter and Aaron Edlin. It makes products and services to support scholarly communication, in ...

, and has been on the editorial board of the journal ''

Health Economics Health economics is a branch of economics concerned with issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behavior in the production and consumption of health and healthcare. Health economics is important in determining how to improv ...

'' and ''

The European Journal of Health Economics ''The European Journal of Health Economics'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering health economics. It was established in 2000 as ''Health Economics in Prevention and Care'', obtaining its current name in 2001. It is published by ...

''. His research has been published widely in journals such as ''

The American Economic Review The ''American Economic Review'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Economic Association. First published in 1911, it is considered one of the most prestigious and highly distinguished journals in the field of eco ...

'', ''

Journal of Political Economy The ''Journal of Political Economy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press. Established by James Laurence Laughlin in 1892, it covers both theoretical and empirical economics. In the past, the ...

'', ''

Quarterly Journal of Economics ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Oxford University Press for the Harvard University Department of Economics. Its current editors-in-chief are Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Katz, Nathan N ...

'', ''

Journal of Economic Theory The ''Journal of Economic Theory'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of economic theory. Karl Shell has served as editor-in-chief of the journal since it was established in 1968. Since 2000, he has shared the editor ...

'', ''

Journal of Health Economics The ''Journal of Health Economics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles about health economics and related fields concerning human health care and medicine. The journal is published six times annually by Elsevier. The edit ...

'', ''

Health Affairs ''Health Affairs'' is a monthly peer-reviewed public health journal, healthcare journal established in 1981 by John K. Iglehart; since 2014, the editor-in-chief is Alan Weil. It was described by ''The Washington Post'' as "the bible of health poli ...

'', and ''

Econometrica ''Econometrica'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics, publishing articles in many areas of economics, especially econometrics. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Econometric Society. The current editor-in-chief is Gui ...

''. Philipson has twice received the Kenneth Arrow Award of the International Health Economics Association (for best paper in the field of health economics). In addition, he was awarded the Garfield Award by Research America, the Prêmio Haralambos Simeonidisand from the Brazilian Economic Association, and the Distinguished Economic Research Award from the Milken Institute.

Government

Philipson served in the

George W. Bush administration George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following a narrow victory over Democratic in ...

as the senior economic advisor to the

Commissioner of Food and Drugs The United States Commissioner of Food and Drugs is the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The commissioner is appointed by the president of the United States an ...

(the head of the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

), and subsequently as the senior economic advisor to the head of the

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer M ...

.Nick Timiraos
Trump Names Tomas Philipson as Second Member of Council of Economic Advisers
''Wall Street Journal'' (August 14, 2017). He was an advisor to Republican Senator

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

during his 2008 presidential campaign.Heather Long & Jeff Stein
Trump to name Tomas Philipson, a health-care expert, as his next chief economist
''Washington Post'' (June 29, 2019). In 2016, Philipson was briefly a member of the

Donald Trump presidential transition Planning for the presidential transition of Donald Trump, led by then vice president-elect, former governor Mike Pence of Indiana, began before Donald Trump won the United States presidential election on November 8, 2016, and became the presid ...

team. In August 2017, Philipson was appointed by President

to become one of three members of the

(CEA). Philipson played a leading role in the Trump administration's efforts to oppose

Medicare for All Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system (hence "single-payer"). Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from p ...

health care systems, promote Trump's

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

agenda, and promote the 2017 Republican tax legislation. After

Kevin Hassett Kevin Allen Hassett (born March 20, 1962) is an American economist who is a former Senior Advisor and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. He has written several books and coauthored ''Dow 36 ...

resigned as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in June 2019, Philipson was named as acting chairman, a post he held until he resigned in June 2020.Top White House economist set to depart amid coronavirus recession
''Politico'' (June 24, 2020). In February 2020, while chair of the council, Philipson publicly downplayed the public health and economic threats of the

, saying, "I don't think corona is as big a threat as people make it out to be." Philipson asserted that public health threats do not usually cause harm to the economy and that the coronavirus would not be as bad as a normal

flu season Flu season is an annually recurring time period characterized by the prevalence of an outbreak of influenza (flu). The season occurs during the cold half of the year in each hemisphere. It takes approximately two days to show symptoms. Influen ...

, although a September 2019 study by White House economists projected that a pandemic disease could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and cause trillions of dollars in damage to the nation's economy.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Philipson, Tomas 1974 births 21st-century American economists Health economists Living people United States Council of Economic Advisers