Stevenson Students Discuss Economics With Top Minds

Stevenson Students Discuss Economics With Top Minds 

During Economics & Investing class, Stevenson students participated in a tutorial with a special visitor, Dr. Robert Z. Lawrence. He is the Albert L. Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He currently serves as Faculty Chair of The Practice of Trade Policy executive program at Harvard Kennedy School. Lawrence was appointed to President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers from March 1999 to January 2001, where he worked alongside current Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen. 

Heidi Olson has been teaching for four years at Stevenson. Earlier she was an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald where she held posts including Chief Operating Officer for Equities, Director of Equity Research, and Chief Financial Officer for Global Technology. She taught Portfolio Theory at Baruch College. She also has worked in not-for-profits including the Guggenheim Museum and ORBIS International.  Heidi earned a B.A. in Economics from Haverford College, a M.Sc. in Labor Relations/Organizations Theory from University of Oxford, and an M.B.A from Yale. 

Dr. Lawrence joined Heidi Olson’s Economics & Investing class; he presented on global supply chains and tariffs. He illustrated the complexity of supply chains - while an aircraft is assembled by an American company, the parts come from more than a dozen countries. One can’t simply say “buy American” because few things are 100% USA sourced. The car you drive may be American but about one-third of the parts are made in another country. He also discussed why gains can be made from international trade with each country producing parts where they have a “competitive advantage” (lower cost labor, technology, mines, metals, etc.) and that tariffs are passed on to and paid by the consumer. Free trade, in general, means lower prices. 

In discussing macroeconomics, a student asked Dr. Lawrence what he would advise the Biden administration to do to create jobs. He shared that trade policy (his expertise) is not an effective way to create jobs since less than ten percent of Americans work in manufacturing, which accounts for the bulk of trade. He said initial priorities should be to ensure that Covid-19 vaccines are rolled out quickly so the economy can reopen and people can get back to work,  and to focus on fiscal stimulus. Tax cuts to put more money into people's pockets in the longer term, and stimulus checks to work faster on some levels. Federal investment in infrastructure (i.e. building bridges) creates jobs that put money into local economies. Throughout his presentation, economics students asked several on-point questions using their knowledge in micro and macroeconomics.