Distinguished Rutgers Economist Jennifer Hunt Named James Cullen Chair in Economics
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Professor Jennifer Hunt, who is completing a stint in the second of two senior-level positions with the federal government in Washington, D.C., has been named the James Cullen Chair in Economics at Rutgers. She will return to the faculty in the fall of 2015. Her appointment was announced at today’s Board of Governors meeting.
The Cullen Chair in Economics was created to recognize James G. Cullen, national steering committee chair of The Rutgers Campaign: Creating the Future Today, a six-year fundraising campaign that raised $615 million by its conclusion in June 2004. He also established a $500,000 endowment to provide Rutgers scholarships to Piscataway High School graduates.
Cullen is a former president and CEO of Bell Atlantic, Verizon’s predecessor company. He graduated from Rutgers in 1964 and was inducted into the university’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 2002.
Hunt has been on leave from the School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Economics since she went to Washington in January 2013 as chief economist in the U.S. Department of Labor. In that role, Hunt provided information and expert advice to the labor secretary and other high-level officials as they developed and crafted U.S. labor policy for the Obama administration. Her day-to-day responsibilities included briefing officials on the latest statistics and wage trends and contributing to the debate on policy issues, ranging from the minimum wage to new labor regulations to the Social Security Trust Fund. She also worked with White House officials on policies including immigration reform.
In March 2014, Hunt moved to the Department of the Treasury as deputy assistant secretary for microeconomic analysis. She has been working on such key policy issues as reforming the student loan system, income inequality, occupational licensing, and the solvency of the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs, often in conjunction with White House economists or staff at other agencies.
“We are proud that many Rutgers economists have shared their expertise with all levels of government,” said Peter March, executive dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. “Professor Hunt’s research, and that of her colleagues, addresses many of the day’s most important economic issues, and their eagerness to share their knowledge provides a valuable service to not only policymakers but to all citizens.”
Hunt’s scholarship has covered such areas as employment and unemployment policy, wage inequality, immigration and innovation in the U.S., America’s science and engineering workforce, crime and corruption, and the 2008-2009 recession in Germany. She earned a doctorate in economics from Harvard University and bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Hunt has held positions at McGill University, the University of Montreal and Yale University. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts; a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London; is on the Scientific Advisory Council of the Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg; and is participating in two panels at the National Academies.