Resources

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)

Housing Wealth Accumulation and Electoral Representation (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers AUG 14, 2026

We document that housing wealth accumulation systematically differs among homeowners by their political participation. Using a nationwide voter-property dataset, we find that realized housing appreciation increases monotonically the more a…

By: Carlos F. Avenancio-León, Yutao He (opens in a new tab), Michael Reher (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)

Whether data from the Fed or from WID.world are used, U.S. debt-to-wealth measures show similar trends (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 22, 2026

The United States sits in the middle of the pack on debt relative to wealth (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 22, 2026

Explosion in post-1980 inequality largely explains low debt-to-top U.S. wealth ratios (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 22, 2026

Measured against the wealth of the very top, U.S. debt is historically modest (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 22, 2026

Private wealth has grown far faster than the overall U.S. economy in recent decades (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 22, 2026

U.S. debt looks alarming against GDP but far less so against wealth (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 22, 2026

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)

Certain U.S. manufacturing subsectors have experienced more tariff relief since the Supreme Court IEEPA ruling (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 13, 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court IEEPA ruling reduced tariffs unevenly across key U.S. economic sectors (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 13, 2026

U.S. trade with China has largely been supplanted by trade with other countries suspected of transshipment (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 13, 2026

U.S. imports are up and tariff rates are down since the U.S. Supreme Court IEEPA ruling (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 13, 2026

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)

Realized capital gains are highly volatile, leading to large swings in the top 0.1% U.S. income thresholds (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 26, 2026

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)

Taxed capital gains are a tiny fraction of total capital gains, which have grown larger in recent decades (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 6, 2026

Top tax rates have been cut dramatically (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 6, 2026

Unrealized gains have grown substantially for richer, older Americans (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 6, 2026

The wealthiest 0.1 percent of households own one-in-seven dollars (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 6, 2026

Recent tax cuts have reduced revenue while economic growth has slowed (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 6, 2026

The United States is a relatively low-tax and low-spend country (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 6, 2026

Tax cuts are primarily responsible for the growing U.S. debt (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 6, 2026

Taxes have become less progressive over time in the United States (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 6, 2026

Income trend for the top 1% diverges from most Americans after 1980 (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 6, 2026

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)

Pass-through business owners account for a much larger share of people and income in the top 1 percent than public company executives (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations APR 14, 2026

Pass-through business income is highly concentrated among the very rich (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations APR 14, 2026

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)

Midwest and Southern workers are more concentrated in tariff-exposed industries (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAR 17, 2026

Industries within the U.S. machinery manufacturing subsector faced different tariff costs in 2025 (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAR 17, 2026

Industries within the U.S. metals manufacturing subsector faced different tariff costs in 2025 (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAR 17, 2026

Certain subsectors of the U.S. economy were more exposed to tariff costs than others in 2025 (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAR 17, 2026

Construction faced the highest tariff rate of any U.S. sector in 2025 (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAR 17, 2026

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)

Workers in the Midwest and South tend to work in more tariff-exposed industries (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations NOV 3, 2025

Workers with less than a college education are overrepresented in the most tariff-exposed industries (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations NOV 3, 2025

White, Hispanic, and noncitizen men are overrepresented in the most tariff-exposed industries (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations NOV 3, 2025

U.S. manufacturing is particularly vulnerable to tariff costs (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations NOV 3, 2025

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)

The overall U.S. tax system today is only mildly progressive (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations SEP 10, 2025

Racially resentful White Americans are more opposed to progressive taxation (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations SEP 9, 2025

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)

Workers in many midwestern U.S. states are more exposed to tariffs (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 28, 2025

U.S. manufacturing industries are particularly exposed to tariff costs (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 28, 2025

U.S. employment is dropping in industries with high tariff exposure (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 28, 2025

Manufacturing and other key U.S. sectors are particularly exposed to tariffs on inputs (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 28, 2025

U.S. manufacturing is particularly vulnerable to tariff costs (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 28, 2025

Equity Prices, Market Power, and Optimal Corporate Tax Policy (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers JUL 22, 2025

We study the optimal design of corporate tax policy in a textbook life-cycle model featuring two key deviations: (i) firms are imperfectly competitive and (ii) households save by purchasing equity…

By: Ignacio González (opens in a new tab), Juan A. Montecino (opens in a new tab), Joseph E. Stiglitz

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)

With capital gains, the share of income earned by the wealthiest households went up 5 percentage points since 2002 (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 14, 2025

Pure capital gains are highly volatile and can turn negative in recessions (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 14, 2025

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)

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act disproportionately harms lower-income Americans (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUL 3, 2025

Americans Informed About the Distributional Effects of Republicans’ Budget Bill Overwhelmingly Oppose It (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers JUN 25, 2025

Republicans in the Senate are currently considering the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which, if enacted, would be the most regressive U.S. tax and budget law in at least the…

By: Jacob S. Hacker, 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)

Millions of Americans, including children, will lose nutrition assistance due to proposed SNAP cuts – updated (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUN 24, 2025

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)

Financial and Transfer Income as Components of the Regional Economic Base (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers JUN 24, 2025

Economists and geographers have long divided industries into “basic” and “nonbasic” sectors depending on whether they bring money into a region from outside or serve local demand. Traditionally, the regional…

By: Robert Manduca (opens in a new tab)

Reducing IRS funding by half could cost the same amount of the Republican budget bill in noncompliance increases (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUN 23, 2025

No tax on tips or overtime provisions cost less than the more regressive proposals in the Republican tax bill (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUN 23, 2025

Americans have heard more about the no tax on tips and overtime provisions of the Republican bill than its more regressive provisions (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUN 23, 2025

Many of the wealthiest U.S. individuals do not pay any estate taxes (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUN 23, 2025

16 million Americans will lose health care coverage if the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act becomes law (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUN 23, 2025

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)

Studies find overall tax rates among the highest-income Americans skew regressive (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUN 10, 2025

Studies find U.S. individual income tax is primary driver of top-end regressivity (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUN 10, 2025

Tax-deductible business expenses spike around owner-operators’ and their spouses’ birthdays – updated (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations JUN 5, 2025

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)

The Firm as Tax Shelter (opens in a new tab)

Working Papers MAY 22, 2025

I present evidence that firms serve as tax-free consumption vehicles. Drawing on a unique combination of data from an electronic invoicing program in Portugal (e-Fatura), I show that individuals who…

By: David Leite (opens in a new tab)

Mischaracterization of personal expenses as tax-deductible business expenses erroneously reduces reported income inequality (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 22, 2025

Business owners and operators reduce their personal household consumption upon taking stakes in firms (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 21, 2025

Tax-deductible business expenses spike around owner-operators’ and their spouses’ birthdays (opens in a new tab)

Visualizations MAY 21, 2025

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)

Request for Proposals: The economic effects of the Inflation Reduction Act (opens in a new tab)

RFPs APR 2, 2025

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)

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)

New research finds capital gains are highly concentrated and hardly taxed, underscoring widespread U.S. inequality (opens in a new tab)

Blog FEB 26, 2025

For two decades, booming stock, housing, and private business markets have driven large capital gains in the United States. Real capital gains, which are the inflation-adjusted appreciation of a financial…

By: Jacob Robbins (opens in a new tab), Cole Campbell (opens in a new tab), Sam Wylde (opens in a new tab)