Edward M. Gramlich, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, will deliver a talk titled "Federal Reserve Policy Issues: Maintaining Price Stability" at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24, in the Keck Classroom (G52) of Pettengill Hall, Bates College. The public is invited to attend the lecture, sponsored by the Bates economics department, free of charge.

One of seven Federal Reserve Board governors, Gramlich took office in 1997 and sits on the board's open market committee, which is chaired by Alan Greenspan and determines monetary policy, including the setting of interest rates. "The Fed has kept them at a historic low recently in an attempt to get the economy out of its current recession," says Michael J. Oliver, associate professor of economics at Bates. "Until recent months, some economists were concerned that the United States might be tipping towards deflation, which we haven't experienced since the 1930s," Oliver says.

Although the Federal Reserve Board's Beige Book (published earlier this month) confirms data suggesting that economic activity is rallying, Oliver suggests "there are still concerns for policymakers: Labor markets are slack and inflation remains subdued, which suggests the threat of deflation remains. During the course of the next year, the Fed will have to make some very difficult choices."

A native of Rochester, N.Y., Gramlich received his B.A. from Williams College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Yale University. Before joining the board, he was dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan (1995-97), where he also served as professor of economics and public policy (1976-97) and as the director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies (1991-95). Gramlich is on leave from the university.

Gramlich's extensive governmental experience includes service from 1994 to 1996 as chair of the Quadrennial Advisory Council on Social Security, a body established to examine the actuarial finances of Social Security and to suggest policy changes. From 1986 to 1987, he led the Congressional Budget Office. Gramlich directed the Policy Research Division at the Office of Economic Opportunity and was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a staff member of the research division of the Federal Reserve Board.

Gramlich has a strong research record on a wide range of issues. He was staff director for the Economic Study Commission of major league baseball in 1992. His popular text on benefit-cost analysis, A Guide to Benefit-Cost Analysis (Waveland Press, 1997),  is in its second edition. He also has written several other books and many articles on such topics as macroeconomics, budget policy, income redistribution, fiscal federalism, Social Security and the economics of professional sports.