Uploaded February 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Professor Ulrike Malmendier, Professor Catherine Wolfram, and Dean Ann Harrison are economists at the top of their fields who have taken their expertise outside the ivory tower in the interest of the public good. Malmendier, a behavioral economist who is the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance at Haas and a professor in Berkeley’s Department of Economics, is serving as an advisor to Germany’s government on the country’s Council of Economic Experts. Wolfram, a leading energy economist, was appointed by President Joe Biden as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate & Energy Economics in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where she served from 2021 to 2022 (she is currently on leave as a visiting professor at Havard’s Kennedy School of Government).
In this fireside chat, Harrison, who is the Bank of America Dean of the Haas School and who previously served as Director of Development for the World Bank, will interview Malmendier and Wolfram on their experiences advising world leaders and efforts to improve public policy during this tumultuous economic and political period. The conversation will touch on the current state of the U.S. and global economies, their efforts to work for sustainable economic and energy policy, as well as what motivated their moves from academia to the public sector.
Professor Ulrike Malmendier, Professor Catherine Wolfram, and Dean Ann Harrison are economists at the top of their fields who have taken their expertise outside the ivory tower in the interest of the public good. Malmendier, a behavioral economist who is the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance at Haas and a professor in Berkeley’s Department of Economics, is serving as an advisor to Germany’s government on the country’s Council of Economic Experts. Wolfram, a leading energy economist, was appointed by President Joe Biden as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate & Energy Economics in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where she served from 2021 to 2022 (she is currently on leave as a visiting professor at Havard’s Kennedy School of Government).
In this fireside chat, Harrison, who is the Bank of America Dean of the Haas School and who previously served as Director of Development for the World Bank, will interview Malmendier and Wolfram on their experiences advising world leaders and efforts to improve public policy during this tumultuous economic and political period. The conversation will touch on the current state of the U.S. and global economies, their efforts to work for sustainable economic and energy policy, as well as what motivated their moves from academia to the public sector.
