Issue Areas
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth is engaged in an array of issues to advance evidence-based ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth.
21 Results
Equity Prices, Market Power, and Optimal Corporate Tax Policy (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Jul 22, 2025
We study the optimal design of corporate tax policy in a textbook life-cycle model featuring two key deviations: (i) firms are imperfectly competitive and (ii) households save by purchasing equity…
Is There Too Little Antitrust Enforcement in the US Hospital Sector? (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Apr 24, 2024
From 2002 to 2020, there were over 1,000 mergers of US hospitals. During this period, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took enforcement actions against 13 transactions. However, using the FTC’s…
Antitrust Enforcement Increases Economic Activity (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Sep 13, 2023
We hand-collect and standardize information describing all 3,055 antitrust lawsuits brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) between 1971 and 2018. Using restricted establishment-level microdata from the U.S. Census, we…
Local and National Concentration Trends in Jobs and Sales: The Role of Structural Transformation (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Sep 6, 2023
National industrial concentration in the U.S. has risen sharply since the early 1980s, but there remains dispute over whether local geographic concentration has followed a similar trend. Using near population…
Political Power and Market Power (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Jan 12, 2023
We study the link between political influence and industrial concentration. A model of an oligopoly that engages in lobbying shows that a merger may lead to an increase or a…
Power and Dignity in the Low-Wage Labor Market: Theory and Evidence from Wal-Mart Workers (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Dec 14, 2022
We measure workers’ preferences for wages and non-wage amenities at America’s largest employer, Walmart, using targeted survey experiments. We find that workers have an economically significant willingness to pay for…
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