philippe aghion and heather boushey. i would also like to mention how fortunate we are and grateful i am to have our brookings colleague, david wessel, joining hutchins center on fiscal and monetary policy to moderate the discussion. to conclude, i would like to thank those who have contributed to making this event a success and possible. the embassy of france for the collaboration and support. and i want to particularly recognize the ambassador with us here today and thank the french foreign ministry and the policy planning team. so now, i will turn the floor over to philippe le corre to do a more formal introduction of our two speakers. philippe: thank you very much. welcome, everybody. i am delighted to be introducing professor philippe aghion. who i had the pleasure to host in the harvard club of france four years ago. the professor is an unusual french academic who has spent most of his career on this side of the atlantic, obtaining his phd in economics at harvard in 1987, taught at m.i.t. before becoming a professo

philippe aghion and heather boushey. i'd like to mention how fortunate we are to have our brookings colleague david wessel to join us on trade policy to moderate the discussion. to conclude, i would like to thank those who contribute to making the event a success and make it possible. we are indebted to france for their tremendous collaboration and i want to particularly recognize ambassador powell today. so now i'm going to turn the floor over philippe le corre to do a more formal introduction of artiste beakers. >> thank you very much, bruce. welcome, everybody. i'm delighted to be introducing professor aghion who had the pleasure to introduce four years ago. it then as usual french academic who spent most of his career on the side of the atlantic obtaining his phd in economics at harvard in 1987, at m.i.t. before becoming professor and then at harvard book of economics. he used to analyze and design the group's policies. much of the work is summarized in the books co-authored a 1998. indigenous growth theory and econo

and that, says heather boushey, who studies work-life balance, will be good for the local economy. >> it boosts our labor supply, especially among women and people who have care responsibilities, it increases job retention for people, people are more likely to keep their job when they actually have the tools to actually make it possible to balance all of these competing challenges in their daily life. and all of that means the economy is able to tap into that talent. >> reporter: true, says georgetown university economist harry holzer, but... >> there is a strong need to balance the benefits that workers and families get from paid family leave with the costs on employers. >> reporter: holzer worries the d.c. plan will hobble local businesses. >> they're providing 90% wage replacement up to close to $1,000 a week. you're giving the worker almost no incentive to limit the amount of time they ask for. other states that have done this provide 60%, maybe 70%. >> reporter: but what would an employer do if it was too expensive--the cost was too high? >> employers can be quite ingenious in te

heather boushey, the executive director and chief economist for the washington center for equitable growth. she received her phd in economics from the new school .or social research the economic policy institute and the united states congress joint economic committee. her research focuses on economic inequality and public policy, specifically employment, social policy, and family economic well-being. her latest book, the economics conflicts was published this year. let me now welcome professor philippe aghion for his lecture. thank you. [applause] it is a great honor to be here. thank you so much for inviting me to you were generous in your introduction. so i would like to start with that sheerng quote, i have a picture, there is light coming out of him -- so in -- ch, it is i tried to translate it. men are those who write history, but they don't know which history they are writing. particularly true of recent economic history. crisis, butinancial we did not anticipate the effects of globalization and the revolution, and not adequately prepared to deal with some negative secondary effects,