Issue Areas

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.…

New research shows how U.S. homeownership and the accumulation of housing wealth are linked to political participation (opens in a new tab)

Essays Aug 14, 2026

Persistent affordability pressures have driven up housing costs for millions of U.S. families in recent years. Home prices remain near record highs relative to incomes, mortgage rates and associated costs…

Housing Wealth Accumulation and Electoral Representation (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers Aug 14, 2026

We document that housing wealth accumulation systematically differs among homeowners by their political participation. Using a nationwide voter-property dataset, we find that realized housing appreciation increases monotonically the more a…

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…

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

U.S. workers will be hurt by immigration enforcement overreach (opens in a new tab)

Essays Jun 17, 2026

President Donald Trump last week signed the $70 billion Secure America Act, a budget reconciliation package that boosts funding for immigration and border enforcement agencies while imposing no limits on their authority.…

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

Is Taxing Wealth Possible? Practical? Desirable? Yes, if we’re smart about it (opens in a new tab)

Essays May 7, 2026

While the American economy has outperformed much of the industrialized world in recent years, there are good reasons to be deeply concerned about its long-term prospects. It is dogged by…

Taxed capital gains are a tiny fraction of total capital gains, which have grown larger in recent decades (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations May 6, 2026

Top tax rates have been cut dramatically (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations May 6, 2026

Unrealized gains have grown substantially for richer, older Americans (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations May 6, 2026

The wealthiest 0.1 percent of households own one-in-seven dollars (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations May 6, 2026

Recent tax cuts have reduced revenue while economic growth has slowed (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations May 6, 2026

The United States is a relatively low-tax and low-spend country (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations May 6, 2026

Tax cuts are primarily responsible for the growing U.S. debt (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations May 6, 2026

Taxes have become less progressive over time in the United States (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations May 6, 2026

Income trend for the top 1% diverges from most Americans after 1980 (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations May 6, 2026

The other two-tiered U.S. tax system: How pass-through businesses let the ultra-wealthy dodge federal taxes (opens in a new tab)

Essays Apr 15, 2026

Many Americans likely remember when the legendary value investor Warren Buffett drew attention to a glaring unfairness in the tax code by pointing out that he paid a lower effective…

Pass-through business owners account for a much larger share of people and income in the top 1 percent than public company executives (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Apr 14, 2026

Pass-through business income is highly concentrated among the very rich (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Apr 14, 2026

Equitable Growth event covers tariffs, tariff uncertainties, and the limits of U.S. trade policy (opens in a new tab)

Videos Apr 1, 2026

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth recently hosted a webinar examining the economic, fiscal, and labor‑market effects of evolving U.S. tariff laws and regulations, particularly in the wake of the…

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

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…

U.S. businesses report that tariff policies will likely lead to price increases and labor market impacts in 2026 (opens in a new tab)

Essays Jan 15, 2026

As 2026 begins, U.S. manufacturers are contending with a varied and uncertain economic environment. Many are weighing growth driven by domestic investments in data centers and artificial intelligence against 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…

Uncertainty created by ever-changing tariff policies harms U.S. economic growth (opens in a new tab)

Essays Nov 20, 2025

The approaches to international trade taken by the first and now second Trump administrations have been an endless jumble of tariff negotiations and ever-changing policies. Since 2018, duties have been…

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

Equitable Growth supports scholars studying the economics of the energy transition (opens in a new tab)

Essays Oct 22, 2025

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth today announced a new cohort of grantees. These nine scholars will study how the design and implementation of federal policy influences how businesses and…

How U.S. tax policies have fueled right-wing populism (opens in a new tab)

Essays Sep 11, 2025

Among the many factors fueling support for right-wing populism in the United States is federal tax policies. The nation’s tax system confuses, frustrates, and angers many citizens in ways that…

To restore democracy, end shareholder primacy at U.S. corporations and on Wall Street (opens in a new tab)

Essays Sep 11, 2025

Workers in the United States have no say over business decisions made in their workplaces by corporate America. Unions, of course, are important for workers’ ability to exercise power over…

The overall U.S. tax system today is only mildly progressive (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations Sep 10, 2025