Issue Areas

Economic research shows immigration is good for U.S. workers, the economy, and affordability (opens in a new tab)

Essays Aug 31, 2026

When President Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, mass deportations and immigration restrictions were renewed as one of the political priorities of his second administration. Since then,…

U.S. regions with more unauthorized immigrant workers experienced declines in new housing construction (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 31, 2026

A large-scale deportation would shrink the U.S. economy, with particular harm to some states (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 31, 2026

Streamlining applications to social programs unlocks more support for the U.S. families who need it most (opens in a new tab)

Essays Jul 7, 2026

Millions of low-income families in the United States tap into multiple social programs to help them meet their needs. A single household, for example, might rely on the Supplemental Nutrition…

Multiple Program Participation in the Safety Net: Incidence, Impediments, and Implications (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers Jul 7, 2026

Multiple program participation is a defining feature of the U.S. safety net, with half of recipients enrolling in two or more programs. Yet most research examines programs in isolation, missing…

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, one year later: Parsing the evidence on the law’s consequences so far (opens in a new tab)

Blog Jun 30, 2026

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law one year ago on July 4, 2025, shifted trillions of dollars in income from working-class families to corporations and very wealthy…

Barriers to Benefits: Unemployment Insurance Take-Up and Labor Market Effects (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers May 19, 2026

Unemployment insurance (UI) take-up is relatively low in the United States. We implement a large-scale field experiment among 50,000 likely unemployed individuals to study the causes and labor supply implications…

Factsheet: What the research says about early care and education in the United States (opens in a new tab)

Factsheets Apr 16, 2026

Research has long shown the importance and value of high-quality early childhood care and education. Child care offers working parents the ability to fully participate in the labor force and…

How does early childhood care and education affect U.S. families and workers, and which policies support child participation and boost the quality of care? (opens in a new tab)

Reports Apr 16, 2026

As states consider policy action in early childhood care and education, there is an existing—and growing—evidence base from which to draw lessons. This report summarizes the rigorous evidence on program…

The U.S. child care industry was hit harder by COVID-19 than the rest of the economy (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Apr 15, 2026

Higher-income U.S. families typically spend more on child care than families with less income (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Apr 15, 2026

U.S. families pay more for infant care, center-based care, and for care in densely populated areas (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Apr 15, 2026

The cost of child care in the United States has grown faster than other household necessities (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Apr 15, 2026

Federal policymakers can ensure Trump accounts do not exacerbate inequality in the United States (opens in a new tab)

Issue Briefs Apr 14, 2026

In July 2025, Congress passed a federal budget bill (Public Law 119-21, also commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) that, among other things, established a new type…

A review of the state of child care in the United States (opens in a new tab)

Reports Apr 9, 2026

Affordable, available, high-quality child care is essential for sustained, broadly shared economic growth and equitable access to workforce opportunities. In most of the United States, however, child care fails this…

The U.S. child care sector recovered more slowly from the COVID-19 pandemic than the broader labor market (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Apr 8, 2026

Wages for U.S. child care workers are low despite the high costs of care for families (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Apr 8, 2026

Factsheet: Using asset limits in public benefit programs (opens in a new tab)

Factsheets Mar 10, 2026

A household’s assets, or its overall wealth, are the resources required to ensure its family members can weather the financial disruption when unexpected expenses emerge. Yet many U.S. households do…

Can remote work attenuate mothers’ mobility constraints in the U.S. labor force? (opens in a new tab)

Essays Feb 12, 2026

Women’s labor force participation increased dramatically over the course of the 20th century in the United States. Indeed, the labor force participation rate of women between the ages of 25…

Understanding the Congestion Child Penalty: Can Remote Work Attenuate It? (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers Feb 12, 2026

We study the impact of commuting time on the labor supply of women with children in the United States. We show that congestion and long commutes discourage the labor force…

Why federal food assistance became politically polarizing—and what to do about it (opens in a new tab)

Issue Briefs Feb 2, 2026

On January 31, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson requested that Congress pass federal legislation to make the Food Stamp Program permanent. Up to that point, the program had operated as…

Dissecting Racial Politicization: Long-Run Evidence from the Food Stamp Program (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers Feb 2, 2026

We explore long-run racial polarization induced by the original Food Stamps Program: a major policy choice to expand the social safety net in the United States in the 1960s and…

ASSA 2026 Round-up: Day 2 (opens in a new tab)

Blog Jan 5, 2026

Yesterday was the second day of the 2026 annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations, which is organized by the American Economic Association. The 3-day conference, held in Philadelphia…

ASSA 2026 Round-up: Day 1 (opens in a new tab)

Blog Jan 4, 2026

Yesterday was the first day of the 2026 annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations, which is organized by the American Economic Association. The 3-day conference, held in Philadelphia…

U.S. social insurance programs support workers and economic growth (opens in a new tab)

Essays Dec 2, 2025

Since coming to power in early 2025, Republican majorities in Congress have shifted resources away from the nation’s social insurance programs, most notably to offset the cost of H.R. 1,…

Equitable Growth hosts Econ 101 virtual event on how U.S. social insurance programs boost economic mobility (opens in a new tab)

Essays Dec 1, 2025

Microsoft Copilot helped draft this event recap. The Washington Center for Equitable Growth recently hosted its latest Econ 101 briefing aimed at providing in-depth evidence for policymakers on how U.S.…

Distributional weighting in benefit-cost analysis is practical and effective at assessing government rulemaking without bias against low-income individuals (opens in a new tab)

Reports Nov 13, 2025

Distributional weighting in benefit-cost analysis is a tool for overcoming bias against lower-income individuals in economists’ measurements of the net benefit of government policies that affect populations at different levels…

Population weights reveal that the distribution of cost and benefits of policies are skewed differently (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Nov 13, 2025

Tariff costs impact industries with mostly White, male, and noncitizen workers (opens in a new tab)

Essays Nov 4, 2025

The U.S. economy is flying blind, with most economic-data publications paused indefinitely due to the shutdown of the federal government amid a general U.S. labor market slowdown and just as…

Workers in the Midwest and South tend to work in more tariff-exposed industries (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Nov 3, 2025

Workers with less than a college education are overrepresented in the most tariff-exposed industries (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Nov 3, 2025

White, Hispanic, and noncitizen men are overrepresented in the most tariff-exposed industries (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Nov 3, 2025

U.S. manufacturing is particularly vulnerable to tariff costs (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Nov 3, 2025

In Conversation with Omari Swinton (opens in a new tab)

In Conversation Sep 24, 2025

Equitable Growth in Conversation is a recurring series where we talk with economists and other academics to help us better understand whether and how economic inequality affects economic growth and…

Fitting the Bill? The First Federal Paid Leave Mandate (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers Sep 23, 2025

We find that the first federal paid leave mandate in the US, enacted under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, increased paid leave taking by nearly 200% for eligible workers,…

Even health care, the strongest sector of the U.S. jobs market, cannot deliver the wages its workers deserve without unionization (opens in a new tab)

Essays Sep 10, 2025

The growth of jobs in the U.S. health care industry is the linchpin to a strong U.S. labor market in 2025 and beyond. Health care is one of only a…

In Her Hands: A Guaranteed Income Initiative (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers Sep 4, 2025

In Her Hands (IHH) is a guaranteed income (GI) initiative aimed at addressing persistent economic insecurity among women in neighborhoods with some of Georgia’s highest poverty rates. Co-designed with local…

States can support children and their economies using direct cash assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant program (opens in a new tab)

Reports Aug 28, 2025

Efficient, effective, and responsive income support programs can reduce economic inequality and support economic mobility. If targeted effectively, these programs can help children, families, and workers meet their needs and…

TANF benefit amounts vary widely by state, but are overall small – updated (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 26, 2025

A majority of states spend less than 20 percent of TANF funds on basic assistance (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 26, 2025

TANF access varies widely by state (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 26, 2025

Direct cash assistance to low-income families has decreased dramatically over time (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 26, 2025