Tomas J. Philipson
Tomas Philipson | |
|---|---|
| Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers | |
Acting | |
| In office June 28, 2019 – June 23, 2020 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Kevin Hassett |
| Succeeded by | Tyler Goodspeed (acting) |
| Member of the Council of Economic Advisers | |
| In office 2017–2021 | |
| Succeeded by | Jared Bernstein |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Uppsala, Sweden |
| Political party | Republican |
| Education | Uppsala University (BS) Claremont Graduate University (MA) University of Pennsylvania (MA, PhD) |
Tomas J. Philipson is a Swedish-born American economist who served as the Acting Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers 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. He holds the Daniel Levin Chair in Public Policy at the University of Chicago, with posts in the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, Department of Economics, and the Law School. He was a Director of the Becker Friedman Institute at the university.
In August 2017 he was appointed by President Donald Trump to become one of three members of the Council of Economic Advisers. While Acting Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Philipson downplayed the public health risk and economic threat of the coronavirus pandemic, going so far as to question the wearing of masks to slow transmission of the disease.