William C. "Bill" Brainard (born c. 1935) is an American economist.
Brainard is the namesake of the William C. Brainard chair, which current Yale provost Ben Polak holds.
The concept first appeared in Brainard and Tobin's 1968 article "Pitfalls in Financial Model Building"[3] The letter "Q," however, was not introduced until Tobin's 1969 article "A general equilibrium approach to monetary theory.
[5] Brainard was co-editor with George Perry of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity from 1980 through 2007, and continues to serve on its advisory panel.
Brainard's fields of interest are: Microeconomics, microeconomics and macroeconomic theory, monetary theory and policy, market valuation of firms, and models of financial markets.