Consumer Sentiment, Junk Fees, Medical Debt, and the Future of Economic Policy with Neale Mahoney

Jon Hartley and Neale Mahoney (Stanford Economics Professor) discuss Neale’s career, Neale’s research on consumer sentiment, junk fees, and medical debt, as well as Neale’s time in the Biden Administration National Economic Council and the future of economic policy.

Recorded on January 8, 2025. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Neale Mahoney is the Trione Director of Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), a Professor of Economics at Stanford University, the George P. Shultz Fellow at SIEPR, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and an Affiliated Professor at J-PAL. In 2022-2023, he was a Special Policy Advisor for Economic Policy in the White House National Economic Council.

Mahoney is an applied micro-economist with an interest in healthcare and consumer financial markets. He is a member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Academic Research Council. He received the ASHEcon Medal in 2021 (given to an economist age 40 or under who has made the most significant contributions to the field of health economics) and a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2016. 

Before joining Stanford, Mahoney was a professor of Economics and David G. Booth Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was also a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow in health policy research at Harvard University and worked for the Obama Administration on healthcare reform. Mahoney received a PhD and MA in economics from Stanford University and an ScB in applied mathematics-economics from Brown University.

Follow Neale Mahoney on X: @nealemahoney

Jon Hartley is a policy fellow, the host of the Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century Podcast at the Hoover Institution and an economics PhD Candidate at Stanford University, where he specializes in finance, labor economics, and macroeconomics. He is also currently an Affiliated Scholar at the Mercatus Center, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), and a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Jon is also a member of the Canadian Group of Economists, and serves as chair of the Economic Club of Miami.

Jon has previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as well as in various policy roles at the World Bank, IMF, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, US Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Bank of Canada. 

Jon has also been a regular economics contributor for National Review Online, Forbes, and The Huffington Post and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star among other outlets. Jon has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg, and NBC, and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list, the 2017 Wharton 40 Under 40 list, and was previously a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.

ABOUT THE SERIES:

Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics.

For more information, visit: capitalismandfreedom.substack.com/