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.
62 Results
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…
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…
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…
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…
How union contracts are protecting U.S. workers from automated management and surveillance in the workplace (opens in a new tab)
Reports Mar 12, 2026
Employers are increasingly using electronic and automated tools to collect data on their workers on and off the job and then using that data to inform decisions about workers’ pay,…
Lessons from past trade adjustment policies to support displaced workers in the era of artificial intelligence (opens in a new tab)
Reports Mar 11, 2026
More than 60 years ago, U.S. policymakers, economists, and labor leaders alike agreed that the potential for new economic forces to strengthen U.S. prosperity and security was just over the…
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…
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…
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…
Tax avoidance among large, complex partnerships in the United States (opens in a new tab)
Reports Feb 12, 2025
Decades-old conventional wisdom held that businesses organized as partnerships in the United States were mostly small enterprises with a handful of active individuals sharing personal liability for the businesses they…
The promise of equitable and pro-growth tax reform (opens in a new tab)
Reports Oct 16, 2024
The impending expiration of large portions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the end of 2025 presents federal policymakers with a significant opportunity to reform the federal…
Allowing the 2017 estate tax changes to expire will reduce U.S. inequality and promote economic growth and opportunity (opens in a new tab)
Reports Oct 9, 2024
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made deep cuts to the personal income, estate, and corporate income taxes that were costly and heavily skewed toward the very wealthy. The…
Estimating the prevalence of automated management and surveillance technologies at work and their impact on workers’ well-being (opens in a new tab)
Reports Oct 1, 2024
Evidence from a new national survey and implications for U.S. federal policy U.S. employers are deploying artificial-intelligence-powered and automated tools to monitor and manage workers, including tracking workers’ locations, activities,…
Measuring psychological burdens in access to U.S. social programs (opens in a new tab)
Reports May 6, 2024
Lessons from new research on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Policymakers are increasingly paying attention to administrative burdens—those “frictions that people face in their encounters with public services.” In 2022,…
Hospital consolidation matters (opens in a new tab)
Reports Apr 4, 2024
The U.S. policy landscape is replete with reports from organizations across the political spectrum decrying the lack of competition in hospital markets around the nation and the resulting high prices,…
U.S. economic mobility trends and outcomes (opens in a new tab)
Reports Mar 29, 2024
A research update Fast facts Critical to the promise of the American dream is the expectation of intergenerational mobility. Invoked in ubiquitous phrases such as “pulling oneself up by the…
The consequences of U.S. hospital consolidation on local economies, healthcare providers, and patients (opens in a new tab)
Reports Nov 15, 2023
Policymakers, regulators, stakeholders, and academics have yet to grapple with the full cross-sectional impacts of hospital mergers. While the evidence is clear that consolidation leads to higher prices in concentrated…
Industrial policies will be more effective at supporting good jobs and a stronger U.S. economy where there is institutional support for worker power (opens in a new tab)
Reports Jul 6, 2023
Fast facts Interest in industrial policies as tools to address the climate crisis, reach national security goals, and boost domestic economic growth and innovation is surging, with more and more…
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