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October 2, 2024

Higher Education: Making Education Beyond High School Work for All

Executive Summary and Introduction: For generations, society has told high school students that college is a great investment. The case is familiar: college graduates typically earn more money than their peers without degrees, and a college education is necessary for the 21st century labor market. For low-income students especially, college has been sold as a…

By Preston Cooper

September 30, 2024

Our Academic Productivity After the Council of Economic Advisers

Abstract Gordon Tullock wrote that government economists found capable of “firefighting” are assigned to do more of it, “with the result that the higher ranks of government economists aren’t able to read.” We here offer ourselves as confounding data points, for our experiences have been otherwise. We read a lot. This article reports how doing…

By Richard V. Burkhauser | Kevin Corinth | Casey B. Mulligan

September 27, 2024

Justice at Any Cost?

“Almost 9,000 children in California foster care could soon be taken from homes over insurance crisis,” reads one among a dozen similar headlines that have appeared in West Coast media over recent weeks. The stories all suggest a situation that snuck up on the child-welfare establishment and political leaders. Yet this problem has simmered for…

By Naomi Schaefer Riley

September 25, 2024

Disconnected: The Growing Class Divide in American Civic Life

Key Points Read the PDF. Executive Summary At one time, American social and civic life was characterized by robust networks of social connections and activities. But in the years following the pandemic, which curtailed social opportunities and community activities, there are few signs of recovery. The American Social Capital Survey reveals that American civic life…

By Daniel A. Cox | Sam Pressler

September 25, 2024

The Costs of Inaction: Economic Risks from Housing Unaffordability

Chairman Whitehouse, Ranking Member Grassley, and committee members, thank you for the opportunity to testify on this most important topic. History offers a cautionary tale against inappropriate federal action in the housing market: From the 1930s to 2008, Congress passed and presidents signed into law at least 43 housing, urban renewal, and community development programs. Despite their lofty…

By Edward J. Pinto

September 24, 2024

Household Food Insecurity Rises Again – Inflation, especially for households ineligible for safety net programs, to blame

Each year the USDA issues a closely-followed report on the extent of food insecurity in the United States. This year, the USDA reported 13.5 percent of US households were food insecure at some point in 2023, which was a statistically significant increase from the 2022 rate of 12.8 percent and higher than the pre-pandemic rate…

By Angela Rachidi | Craig Gundersen

September 23, 2024

The Last Bipartisan Policy

Name a policy that Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Ron DeSantis, and Gavin Newsome all support. And I don’t mean something they are passively allowing or a shallow endorsement of motherhood and apple pie, but real, meaningful policy they are running on in campaigns and enacting while in office. The list of such policies is not…

By Michael Brickman

September 23, 2024

Toward a Potential Grand Bargain for the Nation

The views expressed in this report are those of the individual authors who collectively constitute the Grand Bargain Committee, co-chaired by Michael R. Strain and Isabel V. Sawhill. This report was sponsored by the Center for Collaborative Democracy and was prepared independent of influence from the center and from any other outside party or institution. It…

By Michael R. Strain | R. Glenn Hubbard

September 23, 2024

The Kamala Harris Plan for More Housing Shortages

A signature feature of Kamala Harris’s housing plan is providing first-time home buyers with $25,000 in down-payment support, at a total cost of $100 billion over four years. Absent a severe recession, this policy is all but certain to lead to higher home prices. That’s because the four million program recipients would become price setters for…

By Edward J. Pinto

September 20, 2024

Don’t Believe the Doomsayers. The American Dream Is Still In Reach for Young People

The American dream is still alive and can be achieved in just one generation, even among the most economically disadvantaged young people. That finding is among the most promising takeaways from new research produced by Harvard University’s Raj Chetty and his collaborators. These analysts studied economic outcomes for 57 million children born between 1978 and 1992, whose…

By Ian Rowe