William Gale

William Gale is the Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy in the Economic Studies Program at Brookings. His research focuses on tax policy, fiscal policy, pensions, and saving behavior. He is co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. He is also director of the Retirement Security Project, an initiative supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, in partnership with Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute and Brookings. From 2006 to 2009, he served as a vice president of Brookings and director of the Economic Studies Program.

Prior to joining Brookings in 1992, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a senior staff economist for the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush.

He is the co-editor of several books, including Automatic: Changing the Way America Saves (Brookings, 2009); Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America (Century Foundation, 2006); The Evolving Pension System: Trends, Effects, and Proposals for Reform (Brookings, 2005); Private Pensions and Public Policy (Brookings, 2004); Rethinking Estate and Gift Taxation (Brookings, 2001), and Economic Effects of Fundamental Tax Reform (Brookings, 1996).

Gale attended Duke University and the London School of Economics and received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1987.