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July 26, 2024

Two Cheers for Shrinking Black-White Opportunity Gaps

The latest in a series of important reports on social mobility by the research group Opportunity Insights is out, and it’s another conversation-changer. Across a variety of outcomes in adulthood…

July 24, 2024

Housing and the American Worker

As the American Worker Project analysis shows, real wages have increased over time. Real wages are nominal wages corrected for changes in the price level, and a natural approach to understanding the…

July 23, 2024

How the 2017 Tax Law Made Itemized Charitable Giving a Luxury Good

Key Points This report examines the effect of itemized charitable giving, as tracked by the IRS, following the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. It finds…

July 14, 2024

Fostering Normalcy for Foster Kids

When my daughter was 16 and was offered a job as a lifeguard, her boss told her she’d need to have her own bank account in order to be paid….

July 10, 2024

Has Income Growth between Generations of Americans Stalled?

A defining aspect of the American dream is that the economic well-being of each generation surpasses that of the previous one. However, commentators have questioned whether this holds true for…

June 20, 2024

The War on Poverty at 60: Lessons to Inform the Future

Event Summary On June 20, AEI’s Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility convened two panels to discuss the 60th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. The first…

June 18, 2024

A Unified Theory of Education

When it comes to education, these have been the best of times and the worst of times. In 2021, Arizona adopted the nation’s first universal education-savings-account (ESA) program. In 2022,…

June 18, 2024

Economic Opportunity and Social Mobility

Years ago, I worked at the Pew Charitable Trusts on something called the Economic Mobility Project. In 2009, we commissioned a survey covering opportunity, mobility, and the American Dream. One…

June 10, 2024

Employment and Labor Supply Responses to the Child Tax Credit Expansion: Theory and Evidence

Abstract The 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion increased government benefits to families, and especially to families with the lowest incomes. Economic theory predicts that this policy intervention would have…

June 10, 2024

The Economic World We’ve Lost

Populism has infected both major parties in the United States, leading to policies that previous generations of economic policymakers would immediately recognized as foolhardy and counter-productive. But whether the country…