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.
781 Results
The deeper argument at the heart of the federal budget debate (opens in a new tab)
Reports Oct 5, 2026
Interest rates on the national debt have recently crept up to levels that the U.S. government and the American people haven’t experienced in several decades. This is a potentially concerning…
Trump’s trade war with Canada grows increasingly costly as Section 338 tariffs harm both economies (opens in a new tab)
Essays Sep 22, 2026
President Donald Trump continues to escalate his administration’s perplexing trade spat with Canada through the expanded use of novel tariff powers in Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930.…
What happens to U.S. workers without access to Unemployment Insurance amid economic downturns or disruptions related to AI? (opens in a new tab)
Essays Sep 2, 2026
The adoption of artificial intelligence in the workplace has led to predictions of U.S. labor market disruptions. In response, policymakers have increased attention on the fitness of the nation’s social…
Defining extreme wealth is more complicated than it looks (opens in a new tab)
Videos Aug 13, 2026
Facing high levels of income and wealth inequality and shrinking tax revenues, U.S. policymakers are showing increased interest in proposals to tax the richest households. Yet determining which households fall into that category is complex and changes based…
Estimating AI exposure is useful for research but cannot yet tell policymakers the whole story of AI’s impact on the labor market (opens in a new tab)
Essays Aug 7, 2026
Artificial intelligence has the potential to substantially change the nature and availability of work. To effectively manage the transitions this technology might bring to the U.S. economy, policymakers need information…
The debt-to-wealth ratio: A missing lens on the U.S. government’s fiscal capacity (opens in a new tab)
Reports Jul 30, 2026
Few statistics shape the fiscal debate in the United States as powerfully as the ratio of federal debt-to-Gross Domestic Product. Debt held by the public recently surpassed 100 percent of…
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Whether data from the Fed or from WID.world are used, U.S. debt-to-wealth measures show similar trends (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 22, 2026
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The United States sits in the middle of the pack on debt relative to wealth (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 22, 2026
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Explosion in post-1980 inequality largely explains low debt-to-top U.S. wealth ratios (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 22, 2026
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Measured against the wealth of the very top, U.S. debt is historically modest (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 22, 2026
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Private wealth has grown far faster than the overall U.S. economy in recent decades (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 22, 2026
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U.S. debt looks alarming against GDP but far less so against wealth (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 22, 2026
The costs of the Trump administration’s tariffs diverge for countries and industries so far in 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jul 14, 2026
The first 4 months of 2026 saw continued seismic changes in U.S. trade policy. In late February, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Trump administration’s use of the International…
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Certain U.S. manufacturing subsectors have experienced more tariff relief since the Supreme Court IEEPA ruling (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 13, 2026
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The U.S. Supreme Court IEEPA ruling reduced tariffs unevenly across key U.S. economic sectors (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 13, 2026
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U.S. trade with China has largely been supplanted by trade with other countries suspected of transshipment (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 13, 2026
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U.S. imports are up and tariff rates are down since the U.S. Supreme Court IEEPA ruling (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 13, 2026
Personal Income in the United States nudges up in May but is down 0.76 percent in the past 6 months (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jun 25, 2026
According to today’s release of Personal Income estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. household incomes have fallen 0.76 percent in the past 6 months, with month-to-month declines…
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Transfer income has fallen faster than other components of U.S. income over the past 3 months (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 25, 2026
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Income declines over the past 3 months and the past 6 months are higher for low-income U.S. households (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 25, 2026
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Personal Income is now declining year-over-year, a possible warning sign for the economy (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 25, 2026
U.S. income data for 2024 shows the top 10 percent accrued the highest share of income since 2000 (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jun 25, 2026
Today, Equitable Growth updated the U.S. Inequality Tracker through 2024 following the release of new data last week by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data show that the…
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U.S. income shares changed little due to the pandemic, with top decile and bottom half households making gains (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 24, 2026
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In a reversal of 21st century trends, wages grew faster for lower-income U.S. households in the pandemic era (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 24, 2026
Factsheet: Defining top U.S. income and wealth thresholds for tax policy (opens in a new tab)
Factsheets May 27, 2026
Federal and state policymakers in the United States, responding to high levels of income and wealth inequality and shrinking tax revenues, are increasingly interested in proposals to tax households with…
Defining top wealth and income thresholds for U.S. tax policy design and analysis (opens in a new tab)
Reports May 27, 2026
Wealth and income inequality are an ongoing area of interest for policymakers. In particular, the rise of the richest of the rich—not just the top 1 percent, but also the…
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Realized capital gains are highly volatile, leading to large swings in the top 0.1% U.S. income thresholds (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations May 26, 2026
What is the relationship between inflation, interest rates, and economic growth, and what does it mean for the new Federal Reserve chair? (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs May 18, 2026
Since regaining the Oval Office in early 2025, President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for lower interest rates and severely criticized former Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell’s cautious approach…
Tariff policies in 2025 increased input costs for key U.S. industries, threatening growth and investment (opens in a new tab)
Essays Mar 24, 2026
All tariffs are not created equal. Throughout U.S. history, policymakers have imposed import taxes for a variety of economic and ideological reasons, with varying impacts. Targeted tariffs have been effective…
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Midwest and Southern workers are more concentrated in tariff-exposed industries (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Mar 17, 2026
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Industries within the U.S. machinery manufacturing subsector faced different tariff costs in 2025 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Mar 17, 2026
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Industries within the U.S. metals manufacturing subsector faced different tariff costs in 2025 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Mar 17, 2026
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Certain subsectors of the U.S. economy were more exposed to tariff costs than others in 2025 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Mar 17, 2026
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Construction faced the highest tariff rate of any U.S. sector in 2025 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Mar 17, 2026
New research examines the historical macroeconomic effects of tariffs and sheds light on current U.S. trade policies (opens in a new tab)
Essays Mar 4, 2026
U.S. policymakers have enacted tariffs for a variety of reasons over the course of the country’s history. Motivated by economic pressures to raise federal revenues or address balance-of-payment issues, or…
The Macroeconomic Effects of Tariffs: Evidence From U.S. Historical Data (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Mar 4, 2026
We study the macroeconomic effects of tariff policy using U.S. historical data from 1840–2024. We construct a narrative series of plausibly exogenous tariff changes–based on major legislative actions, multilateral negotiations,…
The state of the U.S. economy one year into the second Trump administration (opens in a new tab)
Essays Feb 23, 2026
President Donald Trump will soon give his annual State of the Union speech before Congress, one year into his second term in the White House. Ahead of his remarks, now…
Analyzing recent U.S. economic policies using Equitable Growth’s Inequality Tracker (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jan 22, 2026
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s Inequality Tracker is a data visualization tool designed to help policymakers and economic analysts examine and analyze U.S. income and wealth inequality in the…
ASSA 2026 Round-up: Day 3 (opens in a new tab)
Blog Jan 6, 2026
Yesterday was the third and final 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…
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…
What impact is artificial intelligence having on the U.S. labor market and the nation’s economy? (opens in a new tab)
Essays Nov 14, 2025
As new and groundbreaking technologies emerge, they can function as a blank canvas onto which people project both aspirations and anxieties. Artificial intelligence—despite its quick uptake in broader society and…
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…
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Population weights reveal that the distribution of cost and benefits of policies are skewed differently (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Nov 13, 2025
Risks escalate for U.S. retirement plans due to unregulated private credit funds and new rules opening them up to retirement savings accounts (opens in a new tab)
Essays Oct 29, 2025
When the privately owned auto parts manufacturer First Brands Group earlier this month began to be unable to service its $6.1 billion debt load, the financial press began to pick…
The Federal Reserve must maintain its independence for the U.S. economy to thrive (opens in a new tab)
Essays Aug 28, 2025
President Donald Trump is attempting to fire Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve in that role. He probably lacks the legal authority to do…
What is austerity, and how does it affect the broader U.S. economy? (opens in a new tab)
Reports Aug 12, 2025
With the passage into law of the Republican budget reconciliation bill last month and the recent work of the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk, austerity is once again…
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Cutting government transfer programs has broad effects on the U.S. economy (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Aug 12, 2025
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Cutting government transfer programs has broad effects on the U.S. economy (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Aug 12, 2025
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The economic effects of austerity policies under a nonreactive Federal Reserve – Final (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Aug 12, 2025
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The economic effects of austerity policies under a reactive Federal Reserve (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Aug 12, 2025
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Recessions coincide with periods of higher policy uncertainty – updated (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Aug 7, 2025
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States dependent on federal grants tend to be poorer or more rural (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Aug 7, 2025
Why Financial Crises Recur (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Aug 5, 2025
Financial crises have occurred around the world for over two centuries. These crises have been so costly and frequent that one wonders why governments cannot prevent them from recurring despite…
Tariffs impact U.S. industries differently, with manufacturing the most exposed (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Jul 29, 2025
Estimates in this brief were generated July 21, before the announcement of trade deals with Japan and the European Union. All data and code used in the Equitable Growth tariff…
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Workers in many midwestern U.S. states are more exposed to tariffs (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 28, 2025
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U.S. manufacturing industries are particularly exposed to tariff costs (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 28, 2025
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U.S. employment is dropping in industries with high tariff exposure (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 28, 2025
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Manufacturing and other key U.S. sectors are particularly exposed to tariffs on inputs (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 28, 2025
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U.S. manufacturing is particularly vulnerable to tariff costs (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 28, 2025
Accounting for capital gains in income significantly increases U.S. inequality (opens in a new tab)
Blog Jul 15, 2025
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s recently launched U.S. Inequality Tracker uses data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to show how income and wealth inequality have evolved in…
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With capital gains, the share of income earned by the wealthiest households went up 5 percentage points since 2002 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 14, 2025
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Pure capital gains are highly volatile and can turn negative in recessions (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 14, 2025
Republican reconciliation bill’s cuts to social programs will damage some congressional districts’ local economies (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jul 11, 2025
In a recent working paper, Equitable Growth grantee Robert Manduca of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor demonstrates that government transfers make sizable contributions to local economies in much of…
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In some U.S. congressional districts, cuts from the reconciliation bill are bigger than multiple local industries combined (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 10, 2025
Slow wage growth is the key to understanding U.S. inequality in the 21st century (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Jul 8, 2025
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth today launched the U.S. Inequality Tracker, which tracks income and wealth inequality in the United States and highlights how particular components of income and…
Equitable Growth responds to passage of the federal budget bill (opens in a new tab)
Blog Jul 7, 2025
On Friday, President Donald Trump signed the 2025 federal budget bill, cementing into law the most regressive piece of tax and budget legislation to be passed in the United States…
Americans informed about the distributional effects of Republicans’ tax and budget bill overwhelmingly oppose it (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jul 3, 2025
Republicans in the U.S. Senate recently passed a version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, championed by President Donald Trump. The House of Representatives passed an earlier version of…
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The One Big Beautiful Bill Act disproportionately harms lower-income Americans (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 3, 2025
Optimal Monetary Policy Under Menu Costs (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Jul 1, 2025
We analytically characterize optimal monetary policy in a multisector economy with menu costs and contrast it with the textbook New Keynesian model based on Calvo pricing. Following a sectoral productivity…
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Wages have grown much slower in the 21st century than in previous eras of the U.S. economy (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 25, 2025
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Wages have grown relatively similarly across income deciles, while business and asset income is strongly skewed to the wealthiest households (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 25, 2025
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Wages are the slowest-growing component of U.S. income for households across the income distribution (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 25, 2025
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Wages and government transfers are the primary source of income for most U.S. households (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 25, 2025
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The upper-middle class has lost income share, while low-income and extremely wealthy households have grown their share of income (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 25, 2025
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U.S. inequality has decreased slightly since 2000, with the upper-middle class seeing the weakest gains (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 25, 2025
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U.S. income inequality dropped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic before returning to pre-pandemic levels by 2023 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 25, 2025
Americans Informed About the Distributional Effects of Republicans’ Budget Bill Overwhelmingly Oppose It (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Jun 25, 2025
Republicans in the Senate are currently considering the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which, if enacted, would be the most regressive U.S. tax and budget law in at least the…
Congressional Republicans’ budget bill is the most regressive in at least 40 years (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jun 25, 2025
The U.S. Congress is in the midst of debating a budget bill that would make massive changes to U.S. tax and spending policy over the course of the next decade…
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Millions of Americans, including children, will lose nutrition assistance due to proposed SNAP cuts – updated (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 24, 2025
Medicaid and SNAP cuts in congressional Republicans’ budget bill will negatively impact local economies (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jun 24, 2025
The budget reconciliation bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives proposes to make large cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and other social programs to pay…
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Reducing IRS funding by half could cost the same amount of the Republican budget bill in noncompliance increases (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 23, 2025
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No tax on tips or overtime provisions cost less than the more regressive proposals in the Republican tax bill (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 23, 2025
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Americans have heard more about the no tax on tips and overtime provisions of the Republican bill than its more regressive provisions (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 23, 2025
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Many of the wealthiest U.S. individuals do not pay any estate taxes (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 23, 2025
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16 million Americans will lose health care coverage if the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act becomes law (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 23, 2025
Testimony by Michael Linden on “The Big Beautiful Betrayal—Working Folks Pay While The Mega Rich Profit” (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jun 17, 2025
Senator Kaine, Senator Murphy, and members of the Forum, thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I’m going to make three key points. First, the Republican budget bill…
More accurately measuring economic sentiment will help build a U.S. economy—and democracy—that works for all (opens in a new tab)
Blog May 13, 2025
When politicians and members of the media discuss the state of “the economy” in the United States, they often use a small handful of data points. Of all the indicators…
Testimony by Michael Linden before the House Budget Committee (opens in a new tab)
Blog May 8, 2025
Chairman Arrington, Ranking Member Boyle, members of this committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here. Today, I’d like to make three main points. First, the main culprit responsible…
“Econ 101” briefing on taxing multinationals brings Hill staffers up to speed on U.S. role in coordinating global crack-down on tax avoidance (opens in a new tab)
Blog Apr 3, 2025
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth last week hosted a briefing for Capitol Hill staffers on multinational corporate tax trends and policies—another in our “Econ 101” series for Hill staffers.…
Request for Proposals: The economic effects of the Inflation Reduction Act (opens in a new tab)
RFPs Apr 2, 2025
Benchmarking the U.S. economy that President Donald Trump is set to inherit (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Jan 16, 2025
When President Donald Trump takes the presidential oath of office again on January 20, he will be inheriting a very different economy, with a very different outlook, than the one…
ASSA 2025 Round-up: Day 2 (opens in a new tab)
Blog Jan 5, 2025
Yesterday was the second day of the 2025 annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations, which is organized by the American Economic Association. The 3-day conference, held in San…
Addressing pervasive tax evasion by cryptocurrency users (opens in a new tab)
Blog Nov 21, 2024
The price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies reached record highs last week, buoyed by the U.S. election of Donald Trump, who is seen as friendly to this novel asset class,…
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Cryptocurrency tax noncompliers tend to be young, male, and urban residents-similar to crypto investors more broadly (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Nov 20, 2024
Request for Proposals: Promoting competition and supporting workers in an era of AI innovation (opens in a new tab)
RFPs Nov 20, 2024
Request for proposals: Research grants for early career scholars (opens in a new tab)
RFPs Oct 30, 2024
The unequal impact of the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening and easing on firms in the United States (opens in a new tab)
Blog Sep 16, 2024
The easing of inflation in the U.S. economy beginning in 2022 and recent signs of weakness in the U.S. labor market over the past several quarters have led households and…
Asymmetric Effects of Monetary Policy on Firms (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Sep 16, 2024
This paper documents firm-level evidence on the asymmetric effects of monetary policy in the US. Focusing on the 1980q3-2019q4 period, I find that monetary tightenings show larger effects on firms’…
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Firms’ rate of investment rose and fell less markedly due to changing U.S. monetary policies enacted by the Federal Reserve (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Sep 15, 2024
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Firms’ sales fell and remained down but recovered only slowly due to changing U.S. monetary policies enacted by the Federal Reserve (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Sep 15, 2024
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The number of firms’ employees dropped sharply but rose modestly due to changing U.S. monetary policies enacted by the Federal Reserve (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Sep 15, 2024
A researcher’s guide to identifying policy-relevant research questions for the federal government (opens in a new tab)
Essays May 30, 2024
Social science researchers play an important role in the policymaking process. Researchers help policymakers at all levels of government to understand key trends and issues in the U.S. economy and…
New recommendations for an integrated system of U.S. inequality statistics chart a bold path forward (opens in a new tab)
Blog Apr 23, 2024
A new report from the National Academy of Science’s Committee on National Statistics is packed with recommendations for building an integrated system of national statistics that can provide accurate and…
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Children from higher-wealth families are more upwardly mobile (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Apr 19, 2024
Request for Proposals: How effective was the fiscal response to the COVID-19 recession for workers? (opens in a new tab)
RFPs Mar 18, 2024
Testimony by Michael Linden before the Joint Economic Committee (opens in a new tab)
Blog Mar 12, 2024
Chair Heinrich, Vice Chair Schweikert, Members of the Committee, thank you so much for extending me the opportunity to testify before you today. My testimony will broadly cover three important…
Ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address, the U.S. economy is strong (opens in a new tab)
Blog Feb 21, 2024
On March 7, President Joe Biden will deliver the 2024 State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress and the American public, in which he will tout his economic…
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Personal loan delinquency is low or within normal levels for all major loan types (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Feb 20, 2024
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Production and nonsupervisory workers now have higher real wages than the pre-pandemic trend (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Feb 20, 2024
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The gap in unemployment between White and Black workers is at historic lows (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Feb 20, 2024
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Wage growth for 16- to 24-year-old workers is higher than at any point in the previous expansion (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Feb 20, 2024
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Unemployment for 16- to 24-year-old workers is at low levels not seen in decades (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Feb 20, 2024
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Real U.S. GDP now exceeds pre-pandemic projections by the Congressional budget Office (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Feb 20, 2024
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The Great Recession of 2007-2009 caused permanent damage to U.S. GDP (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Feb 20, 2024
Closing the billionaire borrowing loophole would strengthen the progressivity of the U.S. tax code (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Feb 5, 2024
The vast majority of Americans are concerned that some wealthy people don’t pay their “fair share” of federal taxes. They’re right to be bothered: Loopholes in the U.S. tax code…
New Circular A-4 offers opportunities for researchers interested in disaggregating the costs and benefits of U.S. regulations (opens in a new tab)
Blog Feb 1, 2024
This column is adapted from remarks I made at the Allied Social Sciences Associations 2024 annual meeting, held earlier this year in San Antonio, Texas, as part of a panel…
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Distributional weighting in regulatory cost-benefit analysis reflects state of the science and would even the playing field for low-income Americans (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jan 31, 2024
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The Biden administration’s new regulatory cost-benefit guidelines encourage agencies to better account for inequality (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jan 31, 2024
New research doesn’t overturn consensus on rising U.S. income inequality (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Jan 10, 2024
New research from Gerald Auten at the U.S. Treasury Department and David Splinter at the U.S. Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation makes the counter-to-conventional-wisdom claim that U.S. income inequality has…
Doubling down on cuts to the IRS is bad for the federal budget and for tax fairness in the United States (opens in a new tab)
Blog Jan 9, 2024
The U.S. Congress recently announced a bipartisan budget deal for fiscal year 2024 appropriations for the U.S. federal government. The budget is largely consistent with the framework agreed to in…
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IRS audits of higher-income taxpayers deliver larger revenue returns to the government (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jan 9, 2024
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Auten and Splinter assign more and more in-kind transfers to the bottom 50 percent’s income (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jan 9, 2024
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Fiscal income, the income that is visible in individual tax data, has become much more concentrated (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jan 9, 2024
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Auten and Splinter find lower levels of top 1% income share over time when compared to Piketty, Saez, and Zucman (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jan 9, 2024
Request for proposals: Research grants for early career scholars (opens in a new tab)
RFPs Nov 30, 2023
New evidence shows that limiting a tax break for highly leveraged firms doesn’t hurt the U.S. economy (opens in a new tab)
Blog Nov 21, 2023
Does increasing taxes on businesses reduce private-sector investment? Most economists agree that investment in new projects and technologies is a key driver of economic growth. While the tax code plays…
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Investment Rate EG Graph 04 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Nov 20, 2023
Employment scarring research suggests benefits for aggressive U.S. fiscal policy in response to recessions (opens in a new tab)
Blog Oct 19, 2023
It can be difficult for the federal government to get its fiscal response to an economic downturn just right. Too much fiscal stimulus can create excess fiscal demand and inflation,…
The New Economics of Industrial Policy (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Sep 19, 2023
We discuss the considerable literature that has developed in recent years providing rigorous evidence on how industrial policies work. This literature is a significant improvement over the earlier generation of…
The role of private equity in the U.S. economy, and whether and how favorable tax policies for the sector need to be reformed (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Sep 14, 2023
The increasing impact of private equity firms upon large swaths of the U.S. economy in recent decades is drawing more attention to the tax treatment of these firms as they…
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Average income growth no longer represents the fortunes of most Americans (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 11, 2023
GDP 2.0: Measuring who prospers when the U.S. economy grows (opens in a new tab)
Blog Jul 11, 2023
This post was updated on July 11, 2023. Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, is the constant go-to economic indicator that news anchors and U.S. Members of Congress alike love to…
Equitable Growth delivers economist sign-on letter and comment letter to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on its Proposed Revisions to Circular A-4, Regulatory Analysis (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Jun 20, 2023
This post has been updated to reflect that Equitable Growth’s economist sign-on letter, not our comment letter, was submitted to regulations.gov due to an administrative submission error. The Washington Center…
What monetary and fiscal policy can tell us about the U.S. recovery from the COVID-19 recession (opens in a new tab)
Blog Jun 14, 2023
The Federal Reserve is at the center of the main story in the U.S. economy, and not just because there’s actual ambiguity around this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting.…
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Jobs growth is once again leading the current U.S. economic recovery (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jun 14, 2023
Money for nothing: The Qualified Small Business Stock capital gains exclusion is a giveaway to wealthy investors, startup founders, and their employees (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Jun 8, 2023
The Qualified Small Business Stock exclusion, enshrined in Section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code, permits early-stage venture capital firms and angel investors in high-tech startups, those startups’ founders, and…
Proposed update to federal cost-benefit analysis guidelines correctly focuses on accounting for inequality in regulations (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs May 23, 2023
The White House last month unveiled a proposed update to an obscure but highly influential government document called the Circular A-4, which governs how the federal government conducts regulatory cost-benefit…
The rise of industrial policy means data synchronization is more critical than ever (opens in a new tab)
Blog May 12, 2023
Industrial policy is the hot new trend in D.C. policymaking circles, a Biden administration promise to radically transform the economy that is pouring federal dollars into green energy, infrastructure, and…
Maybe some Earth Day soon, we’ll know what nature is worth (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Apr 24, 2023
This past January, the Biden administration unveiled its “National Strategy to Develop Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions,” an effort to bring the health and sustainability of natural resources in the United…
Seven ways the inflation debate in the United States has changed since last year and how the Fed can now recalibrate its monetary policy (opens in a new tab)
Blog Apr 12, 2023
Inflation in the United States today is considerably cooler than at its peak in the first half of 2022, but it will remain at the center of the economic policy…
Why measuring inflation is surprisingly challenging (opens in a new tab)
Blog Apr 5, 2023
In spite of recent bank turmoil in the United States and abroad, reining in inflation remains very much at the top of the macroeconomic agenda for policymakers in advanced economies…
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U.S. household rents have risen while office rents are slowing (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Apr 4, 2023
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U.S. inflation surged but expectations remain well anchored (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Apr 4, 2023
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The GDP deflator rose more and is falling faster than consumer inflation measures (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Apr 4, 2023
Summary of Equitable Growth’s March ‘Econ 101’ briefing on inflation for Capitol Hill staffers (opens in a new tab)
Blog Mar 23, 2023
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth hosted a briefing earlier this month—part of a series we call “Econ 101”—presenting the key points on inflation to congressional staffers in both the…
Executive actions to modernize federal data collection and improve measurements of U.S. economic inequality (opens in a new tab)
Blog Mar 22, 2023
Relevant federal agencies U.S. Census Bureau U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor Relevant federal laws Internal Revenue Code…
Money Demand and Income Inequality: International Evidence using a Century of Data (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Mar 14, 2023
Transactions and precautionary theories of money demand imply that aggregate money demand declines as income becomes more unequally distributed. In this paper I test this prediction using money demand regressions…
Inflation, Federal Reserve policymaking, and liquidity traps (opens in a new tab)
Blog Mar 14, 2023
The Federal Reserve is fighting inflation, but more importantly, the Fed wants everyone to know that it is fighting inflationary expectations. This means, in the short term, that with inflation…
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Investment in the U.S. economy declined for most of the 21st century (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Mar 13, 2023
The importance of the American Rescue Plan for U.S. workers and families on the law’s second anniversary, in 8 charts (opens in a new tab)
Blog Mar 10, 2023
Tomorrow marks 2 years since the American Rescue Plan Act was signed into law. One year after the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 triggered enormous employment losses and…
Heterogeneous Spending, Heterogeneous Multipliers (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Mar 9, 2023
Do local fiscal multipliers depend on what the government purchases? We find that government purchases of services have larger effects on employment than spending on goods. Industries producing services are…
Data infrastructure and tribal sovereignty can help break down barriers for Native Americans to build wealth (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Mar 2, 2023
For centuries, Indigenous communities in the United States have faced devastating poverty. American Indians and Alaska Natives today experience the highest rate of poverty, at 25 percent, of any major…
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American Indians and Alaska Natives have the nighest unbanked rate compared to other racial groups (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Mar 1, 2023
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While housing and investments account for most wealth among other races in the United States, most of AIAN wealth is held in vehicle value (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Mar 1, 2023
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Native American wealth is significantly lower than wealth of other racial groups in the United States (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Mar 1, 2023
U.S. income and wealth inequality are no longer increasing, but a return to the equitable levels of the mid-20th century isn’t likely anytime soon (opens in a new tab)
Blog Jan 17, 2023
Five or 6 years ago, economists and pundits frequently debated whether the incomes of low- and middle-class households in the United States were stagnating. I wrote about it, and I…
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U.S. income growth from 2007 to 2019 was relatively even across household income deciles (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jan 17, 2023
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U.S. incomes for households in the bottom 50 percent have benefitted most from transfer payments since 2007 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jan 17, 2023
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Visualizations Jan 17, 2023
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The share of wealth held by the top 10 percent of U.S. households leveled off around 2015 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jan 17, 2023
A missed opportunity to expand the Child Tax Credit will affect U.S. families and the broader economy now and for years to come (opens in a new tab)
Blog Dec 21, 2022
Earlier this week, the U.S. Congress released its proposed omnibus bill that funds the federal government through September 2023 and makes various other reforms to the nation’s retirement system, antitrust…
New digital tools demonstrate the promise of measuring well-being in the United States (opens in a new tab)
Blog Dec 21, 2022
This summer, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth partnered with New America, the Justice, Health & Democracy Impact Initiative at Harvard University, and the U.S. Departments of Commerce and the…
U.S. inflationary trends amid the COVID-19 pandemic (opens in a new tab)
Reports Dec 13, 2022
Fast facts The chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, and other members of the U.S. central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policies, are keenly aware of…
A review of federal lending to small business owners of color during the COVID-19 pandemic (opens in a new tab)
Reports Dec 13, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 hammered small businesses across the globe. The number of active businesses declined precipitously, supply chain interruptions reduced business operations, and global trade…
Early evidence on federal government income supports for U.S. individuals, workers, and families during the COVID-19 pandemic (opens in a new tab)
Reports Dec 13, 2022
This report focuses on preliminary research surrounding the three largest income support programs totaling $1.6 trillion that were paid directly to U.S. individuals, workers, and families amid the first two…
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Expected inflation of U.S. households (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Dec 9, 2022
Factsheet: What the research says about the economics of the 2021 enhanced Child Tax Credit (opens in a new tab)
Factsheets Nov 29, 2022
The Child Tax Credit has historically provided income support to middle- and high-income taxpayers with children. In 2021, however, the U.S. Congress enacted a temporary enhanced Child Tax Credit with…
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The lowest-income U.S. households with children were the least likely to receive the enhanced monthly Child Tax Credit in October 2021 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Nov 28, 2022
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The enhanced Child Tax Credit reduced hardship among low-income households with children (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Nov 28, 2022
How the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 is promoting sustainable U.S. economic growth and mitigating climate change (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs Nov 18, 2022
In an issue brief earlier this year, Equitable Growth discussed how the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 rests on sound economic principles and analyzed the ways that its…
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Unemployed U.S. workers tapped Unemployment Insurance at unprecedented rates amid the COVID-19 pandemic (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Nov 17, 2022
What are the distributional effects of monetary policy? (opens in a new tab)
Blog Nov 17, 2022
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth recently announced our 2023 Request for Proposals to support research investigating the various channels through which economic inequality, in all its forms, may or…
Monetary Policy, Labor Income Redistribution and the Credit Channel: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee and Credit Registers (opens in a new tab)
Working Papers Nov 17, 2022
We document the redistributive effects of monetary policy on labor market outcomes via the credit channel. For identification, we exploit matched administrative datasets in Portugal – employee-employer and credit registers…
In Conversation with Lenore Palladino (opens in a new tab)
In Conversation Nov 16, 2022
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…
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Federal income support spending amid the COVID-19 pandemic injected more than $1.6 trillion into the U.S. economy to spark a sharp economic rebound from the COVID-19 recession (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Nov 14, 2022
The Fed is aggressively but perhaps deliberately playing catch-up on inflation (opens in a new tab)
Blog Nov 2, 2022
The members of the Federal Reserve Board’s interest-rate-setting committee are almost universally expected to raise interest rates by 0.75 percentage points this week, as they have at each of their…
What federal statistical agencies can do to improve survey response rates among Hispanic communities in the United States (opens in a new tab)
Blog Oct 14, 2022
Between 2010 and 2020, the Hispanic American population grew 23 percent, making it one of the fastest-growing communities in the United States. According to the 2020 decennial census, Hispanic Americans…
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Latinos and American Indians or Alaskan Natives were disproportionately undercounted in the 2020 census (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Oct 14, 2022
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Coastal and Southwestern states have the highest share of Hispanic Americans (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Oct 14, 2022
Equitable Growth provides comments to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on its new distributing personal income report (opens in a new tab)
Blog Oct 5, 2022
In December 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released a report that studied the feasibility of releasing its distributing personal income product on a quarterly basis. This feasibility study…
Policymakers can still use American Rescue Plan funds to bolster the U.S. child care system and ensure it has a strong future (opens in a new tab)
Blog Sep 20, 2022
In January, the 118th Congress will draw to a close following a productive session that saw legislative action on pandemic relief, infrastructure investments, manufacturing and research incentives, and critical investments…
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30 U.S. states received the second half of their American Rescue plan fiscal recovery funds in May 2022 (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Sep 19, 2022
Better data collection can help lift the LGBTQ+ community out of economic hardship in the United States (opens in a new tab)
Videos Sep 15, 2022
Over the past 2-plus years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread evidence has underscored the reality that various communities and demographic groups in the United States experience socioeconomic hardships differently. Numerous…
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Bisexual women and transgender people face the highest rates of poverty in the United States (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Sep 15, 2022
Measuring spending inequality in the United States in real time (opens in a new tab)
Blog Sep 8, 2022
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting recession in 2020, followed by a swift U.S. economic recovery, offer lessons today about why real-time data are so crucial to…
Why the Inflation Reduction Act is key to strong, broad-based U.S. economic growth (opens in a new tab)
Blog Aug 16, 2022
The Inflation Reduction Act spells good news for the U.S. economy. The newly signed legislation makes historic investments to combat climate change, lower healthcare costs, and crack down on tax…
How to stop a recession by strengthening income supports in the United States (opens in a new tab)
Blog Aug 15, 2022
Income support programs, such as Unemployment Insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are powerful tools to deploy when the threat of recession looms and unemployment climbs. By providing income…
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During recessions, the loss of employment income is concentrated among already-disadvantaged groups (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Aug 12, 2022
Policymakers tackling inflation can’t overlook the impact of higher interest rates on the U.S. child care market (opens in a new tab)
Blog Aug 11, 2022
As families in the United States grapple with rising prices and ongoing supply shortages, fiscal and monetary policymakers are shifting their focus from the COVID-19 recession and recovery to the…
Factsheet: Is the U.S. economy in a recession, and how does recession dating work? (opens in a new tab)
Factsheets Aug 10, 2022
As inflationary pressure continues to cause higher prices for U.S. families, policymakers and economists alike continue to debate whether the United States is entering—or already entered, or will soon enter—a…
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The child day care sector continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic slower than the overall U.S. economy (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Aug 9, 2022
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Child care centers with higher wages experience lower turnover (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Aug 9, 2022
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Top earners rapidly recovered from the Great Recession, while most Americans languished in poor growth (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Aug 9, 2022
The economic evidence behind the Inflation Reduction Act and why it will boost strong, broad-based economic growth (opens in a new tab)
Blog Aug 5, 2022
The Inflation Reduction Act spells good news for the U.S. economy. The proposed legislation now before the U.S. Senate would make historic investments to combat climate change, lower healthcare costs,…
NBER Summer Institute 2022 Round-up: Week 3 (opens in a new tab)
Blog Aug 1, 2022
On July 11, the National Bureau of Economic Research kicked off its summer institute, an annual 3-week conference featuring discussions and paper presentations on various topics in economics, including environmental…
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After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, migration away from high-tax states increased significantly – updated (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 28, 2022
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Migration rates for U.S. millionaires were unchanged after the 2017 tax law passed (opens in a new tab)
Visualizations Jul 28, 2022
Taxing the rich: The effect of tax reform and the COVID-19 pandemic on tax flight among U.S. millionaires (opens in a new tab)
Blog Jul 28, 2022
Taxing the rich is one of the central policy debates in this time of rising inequality. Elite taxation can change the distribution of income in society, support equitable growth, and…
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