Lessons from COVID-19 Aid to State and Local Governments for the Design of Federal Automatic Stabilizers
In this paper Clemens and Veuger analyze pandemic-era federal fiscal assistance to state and local governments and draw lessons for the design of stabilization policy. They start by explaining why the federal government plays a key role in stabilizing state and local government budgets across the business cycle, before describing the shape this role currently ...
Why and How to Expand US Immigration
Immigration has long been celebrated as an engine of America’s economic growth and cultural vibrancy, even as the changes it brings often cause concern among the populace. An estimated 13.7 percent of those living in the United States today were born outside its borders, nearly as high as the peak of 14.8 percent in 1890 ...
The Causes and Consequences of Declining US Fertility
US births have fallen steadily since 2007 and the total fertility rate is now well below replacement level fertility—the rate at which the population replaces itself from one generation to the next. Our analysis suggests that this trend is unlikely to reverse in the coming years. The decline in births is widespread across demographic groups ...
Foreword: Economic Policy in a More Uncertain World
The Aspen Economic Strategy Group releases its fifth annual policy volume against a backdrop of historic economic and strategic uncertainty. Supply shocks resulting from a senseless Russian war in Ukraine are exacerbating already soaring energy and food prices. Increasing hostility between the United States and China is accelerating the transition to a world of rival ...
IN BRIEF: Entrepreneurship Since the COVID-19 Pandemic
Editor’s note: The Aspen Economic Strategy Group is pleased to welcome Luke Pardue, an economist at the payroll and HR platform Gusto, as an AESG Fellow. Luke obtained his PhD in economics from the University of Maryland and previously worked at the Federal Reserve Board and the US Census Bureau. As an AESG Fellow, Pardue ...
The Hill Op-Ed: How to fight poverty and boost work with an enhanced Child Tax Credit
The president’s 2024 budget, released today, calls for reinstating the 2021 expansion of the Child Tax Credit, which dramatically reduced child poverty. The temporary effect of that one-year expansion on poverty rates was a remarkable feat — instead of what surely would have been an increase in child poverty while the economy was still weak, we saw a reduction ...
TIME Magazine Op-Ed: Too Many High School Seniors Are Turning Away from College Altogether
For many high school seniors and their families, May 1st is “National College Decision Day,” when millions of students make a personal decision about their academic future. It is also a decision with financial implications that will shape much of their lives. While headlines often cite the ultra-competitive landscape for highly selective schools, recent years have ...
Press Release: Why Drug Pricing Is Complicated
Aspen Economic Strategy Group releases new paper by Kellogg’s Craig Garthwaite and Amanda Starc WASHINGTON, DC | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2023 — The Aspen Economic Strategy Group (AESG) today released a new paper, “Why Drug Pricing is Complicated,” by Craig Garthwaite and Amanda Starc of Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. The paper details the complicated drug ...
IN BRIEF: The Wide Class Divide in Family Structure
BRIEFLY: Children in the US are far less likely to be raised in two-parent families today than they were in prior decades, a shift Aspen Economic Strategy Group (AESG) director Melissa Kearney explores in her new book, The Two-Parent Privilege. US children are now more likely than those in any other country to live in ...