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January 29, 2024

Per-Child Benefit in Wyden-Smith Child Tax Credit Bill Would Discourage Full-Time Work for Families with Multiple Children

The Wyden-Smith proposed tax legislation would make four changes to the Child Tax Credit (CTC). First, it would increase the cap on the refundable portion of the CTC, eventually to the same amount as the maximum non-refundable CTC. Second, it would begin indexing the maximum non-refundable CTC with inflation. Third, it would apply a one-year lookback for…

By Kevin Corinth | Scott Winship

January 29, 2024

The Value of a Bachelor’s Degree

Key Points As public confidence in higher education has declined, Americans have become less sanguine about the bachelor’s degree and skeptical of its potential return on investment. Nonetheless, four-year degrees continue to be associated with significant economic and noneconomic benefits for individuals and communities. For those who want to attend college, have adequate financing options, and can finish their degrees, the benefits of…

By Brent Orrell | David Veldran

January 29, 2024

How Should Students Think About College?

In recent years, there has been a marked decline in public confidence in higher education, sparking debate on the value of a bachelor’s degree. In a new report published by AEI’s Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility, we seek to add some much-needed nuance to an increasingly go/no-go debate. Despite public perception, the bachelor’s degree continues to have great…

By Brent Orrell

January 29, 2024

Let’s Not Turn the Child Tax Credit Into Welfare

A renewed effort to expand the child tax credit (CTC) is currently making its way through Congress. The proposed policy would increase benefits for low-income families—especially those with multiple children—automatically grow the credit with inflation, and most contentiously, eliminate the work requirement for families who had earnings in the prior year. In debating these changes and even…

By Kevin Corinth

January 29, 2024

Pandemic Unemployment Fraud in Context: Causes, Costs, and Solutions

Key Points Read the PDF.

By Matt Weidinger | Amy Simon

January 26, 2024

Please Congress: Make Fiscal Sanity a Priority

Sometimes I don’t understand Republicans in the House of Representatives. When they are threatening government shutdowns, they make a great show of saying their highest priority is getting a handle on out-of-control federal spending, reducing the deficit, and bringing down our national debt. And yet, when an obvious opportunity falls in their lap to reduce…

By Robert Doar

January 25, 2024

On the Front Porch with Brent Orrell and Tony Pipa: A Conversation with Nicholas F. Jacobs

On January 25, AEI’s Brent Orrell and the Brookings Institution’s Tony Pipa hosted the first of a series of conversations “On the Front Porch” with authors of recent research on issues facing rural America. Mr. Orrell and Mr. Pipa spoke with Nicholas F. Jacobs, the author of The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America, a recent book that examines the state…

By Brent Orrell | Tony Pipa | Nicholas F. Jacobs

January 24, 2024

Expanding Housing Supply with Light-Touch Density: City of Seattle Case Study

Executive Summary The formula for housing abundance is straightforward: Micro-managing this process won’t work. Planners need to get out of the way and let the market build more housing. 

By Tobias Peter

January 24, 2024

It’s National School Choice Week. Democrats: What Do You Think?

This week is National School Choice Week, which makes it a good time to ponder the state of the school choice coalition. During the Clinton–Bush school reform era, broad swaths of the public—both Republicans and Democrats—supported charter schools and different forms of public school choice. However, private school choice has long been a primarily Republican…

By Nat Malkus

January 23, 2024

A Follow-Up on My Recent Testimony to the Joint Economic Committee on Policy Approaches to Increasing the Supply of Affordable Housing

In my recent testimony on affordable housing supply, I highlighted the superiority of markets over government solutions and pointed to the ineffectiveness of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), which offers generous tax credits for builders that rent units to tenants earning below 60% of area median income. During the hearing’s Q&A, I did not…

By Tobias Peter