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.
101 Results
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 United States can simultaneously foster an equitable AI boom and a clean energy economy (opens in a new tab)
Videos JUN 12, 2026
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth recently hosted a timely discussion exploring how the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is colliding with—and reshaping—the clean energy transition. Bringing together researchers and…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
In Conversation with Costa Samaras (opens in a new tab)
In Conversation JUN 2, 2026
Equitable Growth in Conversation is a recurring series where we talk with economists and other academics to help us better understand whether and how economic inequality affects economic growth and…
By: Shayna Strom (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)
Equitable Growth event highlights the path forward to rebuild the U.S. administrative state (opens in a new tab)
Videos DEC 17, 2025
Microsoft Copilot helped draft this column. The Washington Center for Equitable Growth recently convened scholars, practitioners, and advocates for an Equitable Growth Presents event, titled “Reimagining the Federal Government: Building…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
Equitable Growth event brings together scholars and the policy community to discuss the rise of right-wing populism and the future of economic policy (opens in a new tab)
Videos MAY 29, 2025
This article was drafted with assistance from Perplexity AI. The Washington Center for Equitable Growth in mid-May hosted an event on “The rise of populism and the future of economic…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
Designing economic policy that strengthens U.S. democracy and incorporates people’s lived experiences (opens in a new tab)
Videos APR 30, 2025
Around the globe, people are increasingly dissatisfied with the state of democratic capitalism. In the United States and other rich democracies, economic policy has too often in recent decades produced…
By: Alexander Hertel-Fernandez (opens in a new tab), Shayna Strom (opens in a new tab)
Pro-growth tax reform in 2025 would boost the U.S. economy for years to come (opens in a new tab)
Videos JAN 15, 2025
In the aftermath of the presidential election in 2024, it’s clear that many Americans feel like the U.S. economy is not working for them. Even though policymakers on both sides…
By: Shayna Strom (opens in a new tab)
In Conversation with Natalie Foster (opens in a new tab)
In Conversation JUL 2, 2024
Equitable Growth in Conversation is a recurring series where we talk with economists and other academics to help us better understand whether and how economic inequality affects economic growth and…
By: Michael Linden (opens in a new tab)
Equitable Growth hosts event featuring Sen. Elizabeth Warren on pro-growth tax reform in 2025 (opens in a new tab)
Videos JUN 20, 2024
Several provisions of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts are set to expire next year, providing an opportunity to reimagine how federal taxes can both raise additional revenue for…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
Equitable Growth’s new Nonresident Scholars have a long history of rigorous economic research (opens in a new tab)
Videos JUN 11, 2024
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth today launched our new Nonresident Scholars program. This is our latest way of connecting academics to policymakers to ensure public policy debates are grounded…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)
Research on Tap event highlights the impact of AI, climate change, and racial inequality on the U.S. economy (opens in a new tab)
Videos MAY 23, 2024
The Washington Center for Equitable Growth on May 21 hosted its marquee event, “Research on Tap: Three Forces Shaping the 2024 Economy,” at the National Union Building in Washington, DC.…
By: Equitable Growth (opens in a new tab)