Robert D. Reischauer

Robert Reischauer is a Distinguished Institute Fellow and President Emeritus of the Urban Institute, which he led from 2000 to 2012. His research interests and expertise focus on the federal budget, health policy, Medicare, Social Security, and income distribution.

Reischauer helped Alice Rivlin set up the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in 1974 and served until 1981 in several capacities including Deputy Director. He then was the Executive Vice President of the Urban Institute until 1986 when he joined the Brookings Institution as a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program. In 1989, Reischauer was appointed to be the 3rd director of the Congressional Budget Office, a post he held until mid-1995. He returned to the Brookings Institution until being named the 2nd President of the Urban Institute in 2000.

Reischauer was one of two public trustees of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds from 2010 through 2015. He is a founding member of the Academy of Social Insurance, which recognized him with the Robert M. Ball Award in 2012. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Public Administration. He was a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, serving as vice-chair from 2001 to 2009. Reischauer, who serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, was a member of the Harvard Corporation from 2002 to 2014 serving as the senior fellow from 2010 to 2014.

Reischauer holds an A.B. from Harvard as well as an M.A. in international affairs and a Ph.D in economics from Columbia.