Who is Stephen Miran, the economist influencing Trump’s tariff policy?

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have roiled stock markets around the world.

Trump, who announced his tariffs on ‘Liberation Day’ on April 2, has thrown governments into a panic.

Now, reports are shedding light on the man behind Trump’s tariff plans – Stephen Miran.

But who is Miran? What do we know about him?

Let’s take a closer look:

Who is he?

Miran is currently chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) – which advises the president on economic policy.

Miran was appointed to the post in December 2024.

Miran has a PhD in economics from Harvard University, from which he graduated in 2010.

He studied under Marty Feldstein – a prominent economist who chaired the CEA under Ronald Reagan.

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Miran graduated from Boston University in 2005, as per Livemint.

He studied economics, philosophy, and mathematics and received a BA.

He was a senior strategist at global investment firm Hudson Bay Capital.

He previously served as senior advisor for economic policy at the US Department of the Treasury during the first Trump administration.

Miran was a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and co-founded asset management firm Amberwave Partners.

Miran has been published in a number of outlets including the American Economic Journal, the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Bloomberg, and National Review.

Miran’s views on tariffs

Miran on Monday claimed the impact of tariffs is overblown.

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“Tariffs deserve some extra attention. Most economists and some investors dismiss tariffs as counterproductive at best and devastatingly harmful at worst. They’re wrong,” Miran was quoted as saying by Livemint.

“One reason the economic consensus on tariffs is so wrong is because nearly all of the models that economists use to study international trade assume either no trade deficits at all, or assume that deficits are short-lived and quickly self-correct through currency adjustments,” Miran said.

“President Trump has made it clear that he will no longer stand for other nations free-riding on our blood, sweat, and tears, whether in national security or trade,” Miran added as per Business Standard.

“The long run is here, and the models are wrong,” he said of automatic trade rebalancing.

Miran on Monday also issued a statement saying, “The President has promised to rebuild our broken industrial base and pursue trade terms that put American workers and businesses first… Our military and financial dominance cannot be taken for granted, and the Trump Administration is determined to preserve them.”

“For example, the President’s reciprocal tariffs are designed to address tariff and non-tariff barriers and other forms of cheating like currency manipulation, dumping, and subsidies to gain unfair advantage. Revenue is a nice side effect, and if it is used in part for lowering taxes, it can help turbo-charge competitiveness improvements that boost US exports,” Miran added.

Miran in his November 2024 paper “A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System" laid out his views on tariffs.

“The effective tariff rate on Chinese imports increased by 17.9 percentage points from the start of the trade war in 2018 to the maximum tariff rate in 2019," the paper said. “As the financial markets digested the news, the Chinese renminbi depreciated against the dollar over this period by 13.7 per cent, so that the after-tariff USD import price rose by 4.1 per cent."

“I expect this tension to be resolved by policies that aim to preserve the status of the dollar, but improve burden sharing with our trading partners," the report states as per The Financial Post. “International trade policy will attempt to recapture some of the benefit our reserve provision conveys to trading partners and connect this economic burden sharing with defence burden sharing."

With inputs from agencies