Policy Resources
From in-depth analysis to practical policy insights, find research that helps explain how economic policy shapes outcomes for workers, families, and long-term growth.
Our Policy Areas of Focus
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth connects economic evidence and policy to promote shared prosperity and growth by funding policy-relevant research, elevating scholars and their work, and translating evidence for policymakers.
How Ideas Move Into Policy Decisions
AI, Tech & Energy
Equitable Growth supports research and policy analysis on how artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and the energy transition affect workers, inequality, and broad-based economic growth.
To equip leaders to guide AI toward shared prosperity, our work examines:
- The impact of AI on employment levels, wages, and job content
- How AI drives macroeconomic impacts such as growth and productivity
- Market competition implications of AI use
- The use of algorithms in labor management
Macroeconomics & Economic Measurement
Equitable Growth supports research and policy analysis on how macroeconomic policies and better economic measurement can promote stable and broad-based economic growth.
To reduce volatility and strengthen individual and macroeconomic resilience for broad-based growth, we focus on:
- Automatic stabilizers that cushion downturns and promote more even recoveries
- Tools to respond to recessions that quickly stabilize households, boost the economy, and limit scarring
- Ways to encourage private investment and job growth
- Wealth inequality using novel data and analysis
- Policies to strengthen supply chains and support the energy transition
Political Economy & Democracy
Equitable Growth supports research and policy analysis on how economic inequality shapes political power and democratic institutions, and how that in turn affects broad-based economic growth.
Taxation
Equitable Growth supports research and policy analysis on how tax policies can promote stable and broad-based economic growth.
To provide evidence to policymakers on what effective reform entails, we focus on:
- Distributional analysis, including distributional weighting of benefit-cost analysis
- Pass-through and other business taxation
- Tax enforcement, especially related to large, complex partnerships
- Taxing wealth, including capital taxes on new forms of wealth such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency
Competition & Economic Dynamism
Equitable Growth supports research and policy analysis on how strong competition among U.S. businesses affects inequality and broad-based economic growth.
Household Economic Security
Equitable Growth supports research and policy analysis on how unequal access to care, 21st century work-life policies, and education undermines stable, broad-based economic growth.
We focus on:
- The efficacy of public benefit and social insurance programs
- Income security and access to wealth-building
- Policy effects on economic mobility
- The value of economic inclusion
- The impacts on workforce outcomes through policies such as schedule stability and childcare
Economic Equity & Opportunity
Equitable Growth supports research and policy analysis on how trends in economic inequality and mobility and changes in the economy have affected the concentration of wealth, income, and earnings, and how these distributional shifts have affected the promise of economic security and opportunity.
Labor, Wages & Worker Power
Equitable Growth supports research and policy analysis on how inequalities in wages, bargaining power, and the evolving labor market affect workers’ economic security and opportunity as well as broad-based economic growth.
We focus on:
- Unemployment and wage growth
- Bargaining power and union coverage
- Gender and race pay equity
- Nonwage amenities, job quality, and upward job mobility
How Ideas Move Into Policy Decisions
Disseminate research and policy guidance
Identify policy areas and issues
Conduct original research and identify spaces for effective policy interventions
Identify policy relevant and academically rigorous research questions
Progress depends on a continuous exchange between ideas and action.
Research helps define the questions that matter, while policy challenges shape the direction of inquiry. When these two stay connected, evidence becomes more than insight—it becomes a tool for better decisions.
That connection is powered by people.
At the center of this work is a network of more than 400 researchers focusing on real policy questions—helping explain economic trends, evaluate solutions, and inform decision-making.
151 Results
What can federal data collection tell policymakers and researchers about artificial intelligence in the U.S. labor market? (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs AUG 24, 2026
It is impossible to perfectly predict how artificial intelligence will affect the U.S. labor market. Policymakers and researchers are grappling with important questions around this topic, including what new opportunities…
By: Mary Beech (opens in a new tab)
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…
By: Jacob Robbins (opens in a new tab)
Federal policymakers can ensure Trump accounts do not exacerbate inequality in the United States (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs APR 14, 2026
In July 2025, Congress passed a federal budget bill (Public Law 119-21, also commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) that, among other things, established a new type…
By: Megan Rivera (opens in a new tab)
Why federal food assistance became politically polarizing—and what to do about it (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs FEB 2, 2026
On January 31, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson requested that Congress pass federal legislation to make the Food Stamp Program permanent. Up to that point, the program had operated as…
By: Carlos Fernando Avenancio-Leon (opens in a new tab)
How artificial intelligence uncouples hard work from fair wages through ‘surveillance pay’ practices—and how to fix it (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs AUG 21, 2025
Correction: Freddie Mac and Udemy contacted the Washington Center for Equitable Growth on March 18, 2026 and April 2, 2026, respectively, to say they no longer had business relationships with…
By: Veena Dubal (opens in a new tab), Wilneida Negrón (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)
Slow wage growth is the key to understanding U.S. inequality in the 21st century (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs JUL 8, 2025
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth today launched the U.S. Inequality Tracker, which tracks income and wealth inequality in the United States and highlights how particular components of income and…
By: Austin Clemens (opens in a new tab)
Why do some jobs pay better than others? Think about what workers do. (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs MAY 6, 2025
Most U.S. labor market data characterize jobs by describing the categories of industry and occupation to which the jobs belong. But to understand why some types of jobs tend to…
By: Kevin Rinz (opens in a new tab), Chiara Chanoi (opens in a new tab), Christopher Bangert-Drowns (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)
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)
Benchmarking the U.S. economy that President Donald Trump is set to inherit (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs JAN 16, 2025
When President Donald Trump takes the presidential oath of office again on January 20, he will be inheriting a very different economy, with a very different outlook, than the one…
By: Ernie Tedeschi (opens in a new tab)
Accelerating research can help fill the AI knowledge gaps for U.S. policymakers (opens in a new tab)
Issue Briefs DEC 17, 2024
It is hard for policymakers to ignore today’s “AI arms race” and the public debate on the economic and social significance of generative artificial intelligence. The discourse is fueled in…
By: Rohini Kosoglu (opens in a new tab), Christian Edlagan (opens in a new tab)