Robert D. Reischauer, PhD

Robert D. Reischauer, PhD, is a distinguished fellow and president emeritus of the Urban Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and education organization that examines the social, economic and governance problems facing the nation. He served as director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) between 1989 and 1995 and was CBO’s assistant director for human resources and deputy director of CBO from 1977 to 1981. Reischauer was previously a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program of the Brookings Institution (1986-89 and 1985-2000) and senior vice president of the Urban Institute (1981-86).

A nationally recognized economist, Reischauer has written and lectured extensively on a wide range of topics, including federal budget policy, health reform, social welfare issues, and the Medicare and Medicaid programs. He frequently contributes to the opinion pages of the nation’s major newspapers, comments on public policy developments on radio and television, and testifies before congressional committees.

Reischauer is the senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, one of two public trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, and serves on the boards of several educational and nonprofit organizations. He was a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission from 2000-09 and was its vice chair from 2001-08. He also chaired the National Academy of Social Insurance’s project “Restructuring Medicare for the Long Term.”

He holds an AB from Harvard and a master’s and PhD from Columbia University.