Harvard-Trained Economist Joins ARTBA Team
WASHINGTON — The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) announced the hiring of Josh Hurwitz as a senior economist. Hurwitz recently completed his Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University and has more than a decade of experience in public policy research.
Dr. Hurwitz will be a key player in a team led by Chief Economist Dr. Alison Premo Black and help broaden ARTBA’s economic and research efforts to support its legislative and regulatory advocacy mission. He will also contribute to the association’s Transportation Construction Market Intelligence Service, custom economic reports and ongoing empirical analysis.
At Harvard, Hurwitz specialized in public economics and developed general empirical and theoretical skills to analyze policy. His dissertation focused on the economics of public safety. His desire to be involved in policy advocacy in the Nation’s Capital is driven by his three years teaching American economic policy with Martin Feldstein, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Jeffrey Liebman, former deputy director for policy at the U.S. Office of Management & Budget, and Lawrence Summers, former U.S. Treasury secretary.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Hurwitz gained valuable research experience at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Boston College Center for Retirement Research (CRR).
At NBER, he worked with a team of Harvard and Yale economists focused on behavioral economics, particularly intersections with retirement policy.
In 2015, he co-authored a published paper highlighting the relative liquidity of U.S. retirement plans compared to those in other developed countries. At the CRR, he co-authored more than 20 issue briefs and working papers under the mentorship of Dr. Alicia Munnell, a former assistant U.S Treasury secretary. He focused on the funding, solvency, and investment of public pension plans in the aftermath of the 2008-09 Great Recession.
Hurwitz grew up in Virginia Beach and also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
He enjoys teaching economics and is a virtual lecturer at the Tufts University Fletcher School. He and his wife reside in Washington, D.C.
Established in 1902, the Washington, D.C.-based ARTBA brings together all facets of the transportation construction industry to responsibly advocate for infrastructure investment and policy that meet the nation’s need for safe and efficient travel.
