Economic Perspectives on Infrastructure Investment
THE ECONOMICS OF FEDERAL INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT Bipartisan support for new infrastructure spending reflects a consensus view that well- chosen infrastructure investments would enhance American economic competitiveness and increase the economy’s productive capacity. Sound investments also have the potential to accelerate the US economy’s transition to sustainable energy sources and to address some of the sources ...
Addressing Inequities in the US K-12 Education System
Despite decades of federal and state policy reforms and major philanthropic investments, there are still glaring deficiencies and inequities across the US K-12 education system. In “Addressing Inequities in the US K-12 Education System,” economists Nora Gordon of Georgetown University and Sarah Reber of University of California, Los Angeles argue that reducing inequities in American ...
Business Continuity Insurance in the Next Disaster
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an economic shock unparalleled in severity and breadth across the US economy since at least the Great Depression. The spring of 2020 saw unprecedented business closures and revenue declines. The government response was swift and unprecedented in scale. The federal government deployed two novel programs to support small businesses: Paycheck Protection ...
IN BRIEF: The College Wage Premium Through the COVID-19 Pandemic
IN BRIEF COVID-related disruptions coupled with a tight labor market have led to a historic decline in college enrollment of recent high school graduates over the past three years. This drop, however, comes as the earnings premium for a college degree remains substantial and near decades-long highs. As globalization and technological advances fuel business demands ...
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 ...
Aspen Economic Strategy Group Welcomes Five New Members
WASHINGTON, DC, JANUARY 22, 2024 – The Aspen Economic Strategy Group (AESG) today announced five new members have joined the sixty-five-member, bipartisan group of distinguished leaders and thinkers who share the goal of promoting evidence-based solutions to significant challenges confronting the American economy. Established in 2017 and co-chaired by former U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury ...
Aspen Economic Strategy Group Welcomes New Members
Aspen Economic Strategy Group Welcomes New Members Leading policymakers, business executives, and academics join bipartisan group dedicated to promoting evidence-based solutions to America’s economic challenges. WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 12, 2025 – The Aspen Economic Strategy Group (AESG) today announced that eleven new members have joined the bipartisan group of distinguished leaders and thinkers who are ...
Improving Housing Affordability
Housing affordability in the United States has become a major challenge for Americans and a key policy priority for US policymakers. In this paper, Benjamin Keys and Vincent Reina assess the drivers of the housing affordability challenge, concluding that inadequate supply, barriers to homeownership such as tight credit standards, and the lack of a meaningful ...
Coverage Isn’t Care: An Abundance Agenda for Medicaid
Originally a small, inexpensive safety-net program, Medicaid has grown into a major national health-insurance provider, covering nearly one in four Americans and more people than the public health insurance programs of the United Kingdom, Germany, or France. In Coverage Isn’t Care: An Abundance Agenda for Medicaid, Craig Garthwaite and Timothy Layton provide an overview of ...