This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Dr. Beth Akers, AEI Senior Fellow, about the recent presidential executive order to cancel an estimated $500 billion in outstanding student debt. They explore who benefits, who pays, and the likely effects on tuition and the borrowing habits of future students.

Guest:

Elizabeth “Beth” Akers is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she focuses on the economics of higher education. Before joining AEI, she worked as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a visiting research scholar at the Federal Reserve Board, a fellow at Brookings Institution, and a staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush. Dr. Akers is the coauthor of “Game of Loans: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt” (Princeton University Press, 2016) and the coauthor of the chapter “Understanding Changes in the Distribution of Student Loan Debt over Time” in “Student Loans and the Dynamics of Debt” (Upjohn Institute Press, 2015). She has testified before Congress, and her writing and research have been published or featured in Bloomberg View, Boston Globe, Education Next, Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and others. Dr. Akers has a PhD in economics from Columbia University and a BS in mathematics and economics from the State University of New York at Albany.

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