Issue Areas

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…

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

The United States sits in the middle of the pack on debt relative to wealth (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Jul 22, 2026

Explosion in post-1980 inequality largely explains low debt-to-top U.S. wealth ratios (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Jul 22, 2026

Measured against the wealth of the very top, U.S. debt is historically modest (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Jul 22, 2026

Private wealth has grown far faster than the overall U.S. economy in recent decades (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Jul 22, 2026

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…

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

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

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

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…

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

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

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…

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

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…

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…

Midwest and Southern workers are more concentrated in tariff-exposed industries (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Mar 17, 2026

Industries within the U.S. machinery manufacturing subsector faced different tariff costs in 2025 (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Mar 17, 2026

Industries within the U.S. metals manufacturing subsector faced different tariff costs in 2025 (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Mar 17, 2026

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

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…

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…

Cutting government transfer programs has broad effects on the U.S. economy (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 12, 2025

Cutting government transfer programs has broad effects on the U.S. economy (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 12, 2025

The economic effects of austerity policies under a nonreactive Federal Reserve – Final (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 12, 2025

The economic effects of austerity policies under a reactive Federal Reserve (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 12, 2025

Recessions coincide with periods of higher policy uncertainty – updated (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Aug 7, 2025

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…