A distinguished group of public and private sector economists offered their views on the state of the New Jersey economy at the first Garden State Economic Forum on Nov. 14.

The forum was organized by Treasury’s Office of the Chief Economist to present a wide range of viewpoints on state and regional economic trends in a public setting.

It opened with an overview of New Jersey’s economic development efforts from Caren Franzini, CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, and moved on to focused panel discussions on the progress New Jersey has made in recovering from the 2007-2009 recession, recent trends in employment and wages and predictions on future economic trends.

Dr. Charles Steindel, Chief Economist for the Treasury Department, also presented the results of a study and survey that his office conducted on the relationship between New Jersey’s higher marginal tax rate on its highest-income residents and the state’s out-migration patterns from 2004 through 2009.

Dr. Charles Steindel, Treasury’s Chief Economist, presented the results of his study of the impact New Jersey’s taxes on high earners have had on out-migration from the state.

The economists who presented at the forum included Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisers, Ethan Harris, head of North America Economics for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Leonard Nakamura, vice president and economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Aaron Fichtner, Assistant Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Erica Groshen, vice president and economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Loretta Mester, executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and Kim Reuben, senior fellow with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center in Washington, D.C. State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff participated as a moderator and Wayne Hasenbalg, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Planning for Governor Chris Christie, participated as a panelist.
The event was held in the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton. Links to the speakers’ presentations are below.

Aaron Fichtner - Adobe PDF (1.2 mb)
Erica Groshen - Adobe PDF ( 1.6 mb)
Ethan Harris - Adobe PDF (603 kb)
Loretta Mester - Adobe PDF (251 kb)
Leonard Nakamura - Adobe PDF (226 kb)
Joel Naroff - Adobe PDF (446 kb)
Charles Steindel - Adobe PDF (210 kb)

Tax Migration Study - Adobe PDF (222 kb)
Tax Migration Survey - Adobe PDF (100 kb)
Tax Migration Survey Results - Adobe PDF (169 kb)

Erica Groshen, vice president and economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, presented an analysis of recent employment and wage trends in New Jersey.

Kim Rueben discussed the major tax and economic challenges that New Jersey is facing.