Equitable Growth to Release Resource on Economic Inequality and Growth to Inform 2020 Policy Debate

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 1, 2019
CONTACT:
Erica Handloff, 202-545-3354
ehandloff@equitablegrowth.org

WASHINGTON – Today, at its Vision 2020 conference, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth announced that in January, it will release a compilation of 20 innovative, evidence-based, and concrete ideas to shape the 2020 policy debate.

Several of the contributors to the essay collection are speaking at the conference, which brings together leading voices from the policymaking, academic, and advocacy communities to highlight the most pressing economic issues facing Americans today. Chief among the themes of Vision 2020 are the exploration of recent transformative shifts in economic thinking that demonstrate how inequality obstructs, subverts, and distorts broadly shared economic growth, as well as what can be done to fix it.

“Through these essays, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth aims to infuse cutting-edge research findings and prominent academics into the current policy debate,” said David Mitchell, director of external and government relations at Equitable Growth. “Our goal is for future decisions about the U.S. economy to be informed by the best available evidence.”

Essay authors who also will speak at the conference include:

• Heather Boushey, president and CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, who will write about new ways to measure the economy
• Arindrajit Dube, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who will write about minimum wage and sectoral wage boards
• Dania Francis, assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Boston, who will write about reparations
• Bradley Hardy, associate professor of public administration and policy at American University, who will write about race and economic mobility
• Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, assistant professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, who will write about labor unions

Additional contributors and their topics include:

• Kimberly Clausing, professor of economics at Reed College, on trade policy
• Robynn Cox, assistant professor of social work at the University of Southern California, on criminal justice policy
• Blythe George, doctoral student in sociology and social policy at Harvard University, on re-entry after incarceration back into tribal communities
• Darrick Hamilton, professor of public affairs at The Ohio State University, and Naomi Zewde, postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University, on student debt cancellation
• Aaron Kesselheim, professor of medicine at Harvard University, on prescription drug costs
• Susan Lambert, associate professor of social service and administration at the University of Chicago, on fair scheduling
• Yair Listokin, professor of law at Yale University, on macroeconomics and the law
• Trevon Logan, professor of economics at The Ohio State University, and American University’s Hardy, on race and economic mobility
• Taryn Morrissey, associate professor of public policy at American University, on childcare
• Suresh Naidu, professor of economics and international and public affairs at Columbia University, and Sydnee Caldwell, doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on labor market monopsony
• Maya Rossin-Slater, assistant professor of economics at Stanford University, and Jenna Stearns, assistant professor of economics at University of California, Davis, on paid leave
• John Sabelhaus, visiting scholar at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, on fiscal and monetary policy
• Diane Schanzenbach, professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University, and Hilary Hoynes, professor of public policy and economics at the University of California, Berkeley, on the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program
• Fiona Scott Morton, professor of economics at Yale University, on antitrust policy
• Leah Stokes, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and affiliated with the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on climate policy and economic inequality
• Emily Wiemers, associate professor of economics, and Michael Carr, professor of economics, both at the University of Massachusetts Boston, on earnings instability
• Owen Zidar, associate professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, and Eric Zwick, associate professor of finance at the University of Chicago, on income tax reform

For more information on the Vision 2020 conference, click here.

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth is a nonprofit research and grantmaking organization dedicated to advancing evidence-backed ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth. For more information, see www.equitablegrowth.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook @equitablegrowth.