Resources
From peer-reviewed research to accessible policy briefs, explore the scholarship that’s shaping debates and driving change.
299 Results
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…
By: Carlos Fernando Avenancio-Leon (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Austin Clemens (opens in a new tab), David S. Mitchell (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Christopher Bangert-Drowns (opens in a new tab)
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.…
By: Christopher Bangert-Drowns (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Austin Clemens (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Austin Clemens (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: David S. Mitchell (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: David S. Mitchell (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Christopher Bangert-Drowns (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Christopher Bangert-Drowns (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Megan Rivera (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Christopher Bangert-Drowns (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Nirupama Rao (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Christopher Bangert-Drowns (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Andrea Louise Campbell (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Lenore Palladino (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Christopher Bangert-Drowns (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Austin Clemens (opens in a new tab)
The 10 worst policies for equitable economic growth in the 2025 budget reconciliation law (opens in a new tab)
Essays JUL 14, 2025
The 2025 budget reconciliation law that was enacted earlier this month is a sprawling piece of legislation, touching almost every corner of the federal budget and the U.S. economy. It…
By: David S. Mitchell (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Jacob Hacker (opens in a new tab), Patrick Sullivan (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Jacob Hacker (opens in a new tab), Patrick Sullivan (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Robert Manduca (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Michael Linden (opens in a new tab)
Factsheet: U.S. economic mobility and policies to increase upward mobility (opens in a new tab)
Factsheets JUN 17, 2025
The United States often has been touted as a land of opportunity, where hard work leads to success and children do better than their parents. But increasingly, these notions of…
By: Shira Markoff (opens in a new tab), Melissa Grober-Morrow (opens in a new tab)
The ‘funny math’ of top U.S. tax rates (opens in a new tab)
Essays JUN 11, 2025
The current reconciliation bill now before Congress won’t correct for the low tax rates paid by the richest Americans Overview Calculating the effective tax rate of the richest Americans can…
By: Patrick Driessen (opens in a new tab), David S. Mitchell (opens in a new tab)
Business owners often use their firms as tax shelters, reducing government revenue and reported income inequality (opens in a new tab)
Blog MAY 22, 2025
Picture this scene: After sharing a meal with friends, someone in the group grabs the check and says, “I’ll take this so I can expense it through my company.” It…
By: David Leite (opens in a new tab)
Advancing economic research on the Inflation Reduction Act: Q&A with Heather Boushey (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs APR 23, 2025
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is the most significant economic and clean energy jobs program the United States has ever initiated. To improve overall understanding of whether the new…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
Factsheet: What we know about the federal employer-provided child care credit and how can it be better used by businesses (opens in a new tab)
Factsheets APR 22, 2025
The employer-provided child care credit, also referred to as Section 45F in the Internal Revenue Code, provides a limited subsidy to businesses in the United States that provide child care…
By: Megan Rivera (opens in a new tab)
“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.…
By: Elena Patel (opens in a new tab)
The qualified small business stock exclusion overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy and should be reformed in 2025 (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs APR 1, 2025
This year’s debate over the expiring personal income and estate tax provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provides an opportunity for reforming the qualified small business stock…
By: Jean Ross (opens in a new tab)
Equitable Growth hosts Hill briefing on proliferation and taxation of U.S. pass-through businesses (opens in a new tab)
Blog MAR 13, 2025
On March 7, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth hosted a briefing—part of a series we call “Econ 101”—for Hill staffers curious about the proliferation of pass-through businesses and how…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
Your Direct Line to Cutting Edge Research
Be the first to know about our latest events, research releases, and expert insights. Get exclusive updates delivered right to your inbox and never miss an opportunity to engage with our community.