Speaker biographies

Lily Batchelder is an associate professor of law and public policy at New York University. She specializes in taxation, with particular emphasis on income taxation, wealth transfer taxation, tax incentives, income volatility, and social insurance. Ms. Batchelder joined the faculty from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where she focused on transactional and tax policy matters.  Previously, Ms. Batchelder served as a Wiener Fellow at the Wiener Center on Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government; director of community affairs and campaign manager for a New York state senator; and client advocate for Neighbors Together, a small social services organization in Brooklyn, New York. She currently is chair of Neighbors Together, a member of the advisory board of the Center for Economic Progress, and a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Michael J. Graetz is the Justus S. Hotchkiss Professor of Law at Yale Law School. His specialties include taxation, tax policy, health law and policy, and income security law and policy. Prior to coming to Yale, Mr. Graetz taught at Georgetown University, the University of Virginia, the University of Southern California, and the California Institute of Technology; he also served in the U.S. Treasury in Washington, D.C., in the early 1990s. His books on taxation include 100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States (Yale University Press, 2008); Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth, with Ian Shapiro (Princeton University Press, 2006); and The Decline (and Fall?) of the Income Tax (Norton, 1997).

Kevin A. Hassett is the director of economic policy studies and a resident scholar at AEI. He is also a weekly columnist for Bloomberg. Before joining AEI, Mr. Hassett was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at the Columbia Business School. He was an economic adviser to the George W. Bush campaign in the 2004 presidential election and was the chief economic adviser to Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) during the 2000 primaries. He has also served as a policy consultant to the Department of the Treasury during both the former Bush and Clinton administrations. Mr. Hassett is a member of the Joint Committee on Taxation’s Dynamic Scoring Advisory Panel. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of six books on economics and economic policy, including Toward Fundamental Tax Reform (AEI Press, 2005). He has published scholarly articles in the American Economic Review, Economic Journal, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Public Economics, and many other professional journals. His popular writings have been published in the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, USA Today, the Washington Post, and numerous other outlets. His economic commentaries are regularly aired on radio and television, including recent appearances on the Today Show, CBS’s Morning Show, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Hardball, Moneyline, and Power Lunch.

Alan D. Viard is a resident scholar at AEI. Prior to joining AEI, he was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University. He has also worked for the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis, the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, and the Joint Committee on Taxation of the U.S. Congress. Mr. Viard has written on a wide variety of tax and budget issues.

Lily Batchelder is an associate professor of law and public policy at New York University. She specializes in taxation, with particular emphasis on income taxation, wealth transfer taxation, tax incentives, income volatility, and social insurance. Ms. Batchelder joined the faculty from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where she focused on transactional and tax policy matters.  Previously, Ms. Batchelder served as a Wiener Fellow at the Wiener Center on Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government; director of community affairs and campaign manager for a New York state senator; and client advocate for Neighbors Together, a small social services organization in Brooklyn, New York. She currently is chair of Neighbors Together, a member of the advisory board of the Center for Economic Progress, and a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Michael J. Graetz is the Justus S. Hotchkiss Professor of Law at Yale Law School. His specialties include taxation, tax policy, health law and policy, and income security law and policy. Prior to coming to Yale, Mr. Graetz taught at Georgetown University, the University of Virginia, the University of Southern California, and the California Institute of Technology; he also served in the U.S. Treasury in Washington, D.C., in the early 1990s. His books on taxation include 100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States (Yale University Press, 2008); Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth, with Ian Shapiro (Princeton University Press, 2006); and The Decline (and Fall?) of the Income Tax (Norton, 1997).

Kevin A. Hassett is the director of economic policy studies and a resident scholar at AEI. He is also a weekly columnist for Bloomberg. Before joining AEI, Mr. Hassett was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at the Columbia Business School. He was an economic adviser to the George W. Bush campaign in the 2004 presidential election and was the chief economic adviser to Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) during the 2000 primaries. He has also served as a policy consultant to the Department of the Treasury during both the former Bush and Clinton administrations. Mr. Hassett is a member of the Joint Committee on Taxation’s Dynamic Scoring Advisory Panel. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of six books on economics and economic policy, including Toward Fundamental Tax Reform (AEI Press, 2005). He has published scholarly articles in the American Economic Review, Economic Journal, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Public Economics, and many other professional journals. His popular writings have been published in the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, USA Today, the Washington Post, and numerous other outlets. His economic commentaries are regularly aired on radio and television, including recent appearances on the Today Show, CBS’s Morning Show, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Hardball, Moneyline, and Power Lunch.

Alan D. Viard is a resident scholar at AEI. Prior to joining AEI, he was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University. He has also worked for the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis, the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, and the Joint Committee on Taxation of the U.S. Congress. Mr. Viard has written on a wide variety of tax and budget issues.

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