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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.
756 Results
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 Work Does Generative AI Do? (opens in a new tab)
Essays Sep 8, 2026
Since August 2024, our Real-Time Population Survey (RPS), a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults ages 18 to 64, has tracked how many Americans use generative artificial intelligence (AI). The adoption…
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…
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,…
Terms and conditions for generative AI users outline a new legal framework that puts U.S. consumers at risk (opens in a new tab)
Essays Aug 20, 2026
Generative AI, or genAI, is a form of artificial intelligence that produces content in response to prompts and includes large language model chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude.…
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…
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…
Tracking new research on artificial intelligence and its impact on the U.S. labor market (opens in a new tab)
Essays Aug 5, 2026
Headlines often paint extreme and dissonant pictures of the future impact of AI on the U.S. economy and labor market, with workers themselves echoing the conflicting feelings of optimism and…
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…
Why Unemployment Insurance Alone Is Not Enough in the AI Era (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jul 8, 2026
Since the large language model ChatGPT was rolled out in November 2022, artificial intelligence has captured the public’s attention and generated myriad debates over the emerging technology’s potential impacts on…
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…
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…
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. 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.…
U.S. workers need sectoral bargaining now more than ever (opens in a new tab)
Essays Jun 4, 2026
U.S. union membership and coverage rates have declined for decades, fueled in part by legal barriers to new organizing, including the limiting of collective bargaining to specific workplaces or employers and misclassifying certain groups of workers so they…
The U.S. public is angry about economic conditions, and the middle class is losing ground. Are these trends connected? (opens in a new tab)
Essays May 14, 2026
A random sample of recent headlines likely would yield two fairly common stories about the U.S. economy. One is that the public is angry about the economy and the other…
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…
Research shows unions dampen support for right-wing populism and help workers navigate technological transitions (opens in a new tab)
Essays May 1, 2026
On May 1, much of the world—though not the United States—celebrates International Workers Day to honor the social and economic contributions of workers and labor unions. The May Day holiday began in large part to mark…
Why the Iran war is bad for U.S. economic growth (opens in a new tab)
Essays Apr 23, 2026
The growth trajectory of the U.S. economy is highly dependent on its connections to the outside world through trade and investments, as well as foreign policy and geopolitical developments. That…
Research on climate change’s impact on U.S. workers underscores the benefits of workplace heat standards (opens in a new tab)
Essays Apr 22, 2026
This year’s Earth Day follows a record-breaking heat wave across much of the East Coast, which followed a record-breaking heat wave that took hold in much of the West and…
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…
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…
Research-based perspectives on the connection between economic policy and rising support for authoritarian populism (opens in a new tab)
Essays Mar 19, 2026
In 2025, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth began to explore the evidence behind a link between the effects of economic policies and global support for authoritarian populist candidates for…
The unintended macroeconomic effects of U.S. climate policy uncertainty (opens in a new tab)
Essays Mar 17, 2026
Recent policy developments in the United States highlight just how quickly climate policies can change. In January 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would stop considering lives…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
Expanding eligibility for Unemployment Insurance helps low-income U.S. workers find better jobs (opens in a new tab)
Essays Dec 9, 2025
Unemployment Insurance serves as a critical income support program for U.S. workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. It is also a valuable tool to stabilize…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Workplace exposure to artificial intelligence is higher among U.S. workers with higher wages, depending on how AI is used (opens in a new tab)
Essays Oct 23, 2025
Recent advances using artificial intelligence in workplaces, particularly large language models such as Claude.ai and ChatGPT, are increasingly disrupting the U.S. labor market. The cognitive power of AI has the…
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…
Payment for schedule changes under Fair Workweek laws in three U.S. cities (opens in a new tab)
Essays Oct 16, 2025
Fair Workweek laws set new standards for scheduling U.S. workers in jobs and industries characterized by fluctuating and unpredictable work hours, such as jobs in retail and food service. A…
Rethinking U.S. economic mobility to study change within a generation (opens in a new tab)
Essays Oct 9, 2025
When most people think about intergenerational mobility, they often assume it unfolds gradually over long periods of time. Historical patterns have reinforced this perception, shaping a widespread belief that meaningful…
The status of U.S. labor market data amid the government shutdown (opens in a new tab)
Essays Oct 3, 2025
The federal government ground to a halt earlier this week as Congress was unable to reach a bipartisan agreement on continuing funding after annual appropriations ran out at the end…
U.S. workers’ and managers’ experiences with Fair Workweek laws can inform enforcement and education (opens in a new tab)
Essays Oct 2, 2025
Fair Workweek laws are intended to set new standards for scheduling workers in jobs and industries characterized by fluctuating and unpredictable work hours, such as jobs in retail and food…
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