Feldstein Martin

American government aide, the Chairman of President Reagans Council of Economic Advisor in August 1982 and one of the most influential of the nations conservative young economists. Martin Feldstein is the son of Meyer Feldstein, an attorney in general practice, and Esther (Gevarter) Feldstein. When he was 11 years old, his family moved to Rockville Center, Long Island, where he attended South Side High School. In 1957 he entered Harvard University on a scholarship. He had originally intended to pursue a law degree like his father, but instead majored in economics. He also took all the required premedical courses. For his senior thesis, he creatively combined the two subjects in a cost-benefit analysis suggesting new ways of allocating government medical research monies. After earning a Harvard B.A. degree in economics, summa cum laude, 1961, Feldstein attended Oxford University on a Fulbright fellowship. His plan was to study health economics for a year or two and then return to Harvard for a medical degree. However, while he was at Oxford, he learned of econometrics, the statistical study of economics data using the computer. Intrigued by this new discipline, he stayed at Oxford for six years. In 1964, he earned an M.A. degree, and in 1967, his Ph.D. From 1965 to 1967 he lectured on public finance at Nuffield, Oxford and published numerous papers on the British national health system. Feldstein returned to the U.S. in 1967 as an assistant professor of economics at Harvard University. Within two years, he rose to full rank of professor. During the late 1960s and 1970s, Feldstein produced econometric analyses of public subsidy programs and tax laws that helped lay the groundwork for the development of supply-side economics. His standard-setting use of econometrics in public policy issues won him the regard of conservative and liberal colleagues alike. Perhaps his most controversial were his studies of the Social Security system. The detailed report of his findings was first published in the Journal of Political Economy in 1974. Feldstein claimed that the federal retirement program retarded national economic growth because it discouraged personal savings by an estimated 50 percent. He was at the forefront of the growing ranks of young, conservative economists who became known as "supply-siders," a term used to differentiate them from the demand-oriented Keynesians. Based on his conviction that he had found solutions to the nation’s economic problems, he set out in the late 1970s, to influence policymaking at the highest level. He published studies and contributed regularly to professional journals. He made frequent appearances before congressional committees while carefully avoided identification with either political party to preserve his non-partisan stance. In 1975, he declined President Gerald Ford’s offer of a seat on the Council of Economic Advisers. Feldstein’s influence increased substantially when he was named president of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in April 1977. A non-profit economic research organization, the NBER is best known for its reliable, independent reviews of government statistical data. Under his direction, the NBER began an ambitious publishing program. The organization published up to 200 papers per year, many of them reflecting the conservative perspective of the new bureau president. He came under fire from critics who charged that he was using the bureau as "his own priva Read less