WASHINGTON — Vice President-elect Joseph Biden will chair a task force to come up with policies aimed at improving the conditions of the nation's middle class, the transition team announced yesterday.

The panel, which will be made up of four cabinet members and other officials, plans to study how existing policies in areas such as economic policy and health care impact the middle class. It plans to issue recommendations both for legislation and executive orders.

"Our charge is to look at existing and future policies across the board and use a yardstick to measure how they are impacting the working and middle-class families," Biden said in a statement.