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Washington Center for Equitable Growth awards $1.3 million to scholars exploring the connection between economic inequality and growth

2021 grants emphasize the impact of structural racism on inequality, economic mobility, and market concentration, with expanded exploration of child care and climate issues

CONTACT:
Katie Wilcoxson, kwilcoxson@equitablegrowth.org

WASHINGTON – The Washington Center for Equitable Growth announced today it will award research grants totaling $1,392,795 to generate evidence on the ways that inequality affects economic growth and stability.

“The advances from every research grant will be invaluable to broadening our knowledge of the challenges and opportunities present in the U.S. economy for today’s workers and families across race, ethnicity, gender, and class,” said Equitable Growth’s incoming President and CEO Michelle Holder. “Our grant program is a cornerstone of our mission to foster strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth through data-driven policymaking, and we are honored to be able to continue to support scholars doing this critical work.”

This year’s awards underscore Equitable Growth’s commitment to funding cutting-edge research that answers today’s pressing policy questions and will inform the debates of tomorrow. For the first time, the economic effects of climate change were featured in the Request for Proposals, and the organization awarded its first-ever grants focused solely on child care.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provided generous financial support for research on the measurement, welfare effects, and remediation of excessive market power concentration, the relationship between competition and economic dynamism, and new foundations for antitrust actions.

“We’re thrilled to see such creativity, diversity, and excellence in this year’s grant pool,” added Jason Furman, an economic policy professor at Harvard University and member of Equitable Growth’s Steering Committee. “Especially in light of the unprecedented nature of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s more important than ever to have researchers who are examining the full scope of how people are interacting with and affected by shifts in our market structure.”

In addition, Equitable Growth continued to reaffirm and deepen its commitment to focusing on the racial and ethnic elements of inequality in the United States, as well as strengthening the pipeline of early-career scholars of color. The 2021 RFP included a call for research that directly examines structural racism, including both historical studies of the incidence and effects, as well as research that could inform policy solutions to combat it. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided generous support for research on structural racism, as well as innovative research on economic mobility in the United States.

“Much of mainstream economic study and application has sidelined a core determinant of economic outcomes: the intersection of race and power,” said interim chief economist and Director of Labor Market Policy Kate Bahn. “Through our grants program, we are able to better explore the inextricable link between economic and racial inequality and its effect on growth and stability to help advance an evidence-backed policy agenda that fosters a dynamic, inclusive economy in the United States.”

2021 marks the organization’s eighth cycle of academic grantmaking and sets a record for the largest funding year to date. Equitable Growth has seeded more than $7 million to more than 250 scholars through its competitive grants program since its founding in 2013.

The 62 grantees who will participate in this year’s funded research are economists and social scientists who currently serve as faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and Ph.D. candidates at U.S. colleges and universities, as well as scholars from government research agencies.

Equitable Growth funds research in four categories:

  • Human capital and well-being, including the effect of economic inequality on the development of human potential
  • The labor market, including the effect of inequality on the smooth functioning of the labor market and the gains from labor
  • Macroeconomic policy, including the effects of monetary, fiscal, and tax policy on inequality and growth
  • Market structure, including the causes of increased concentration and consequences for productivity, growth, labor markets, and power

Equitable Growth’s grant program is open to researchers affiliated with a U.S. university, and its doctoral grants are open to graduate students currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program at a U.S. university. For more information on the grants awarded in 2021, click here.

To view the 2021 Request for Proposals, click here. Equitable Growth’s 2022 Request for Proposals will be released in November 2021.

Full descriptions of the 2021 grants and a profile of each grantee can be found on the Equitable Growth website: human capital and well-being, macroeconomic policy, market structure, and the labor market.

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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.

Byron Auguste joins Equitable Growth Steering Committee

CONTACT:
Elena Waskey, ewaskey@equitablegrowth.org

WASHINGTON – The Washington Center for Equitable Growth announced today that economist Byron Auguste, co-founder and CEO of Opportunity@Work, has joined the organization’s Steering Committee to help guide the organization’s efforts to study how economic inequality affects economic growth and stability, and to build a new narrative about what makes the U.S. economy grow. Auguste also serves as a member of Equitable Growth’s Board of Directors.

As a member of the Steering Committee, Auguste will advise on the organization’s academic grants program and help strengthen connections within Equitable Growth’s growing academic community, especially in supporting the next generation of scholars.

“Byron is a critical voice in the economics field,” said incoming Equitable Growth President and CEO Michelle Holder. “Every day, he uses his knowledge as an economist to inform real-world debates about what makes the economy grow and how to rewire the labor market so all people can contribute their talents and receive the full benefits of their work, regardless of their educational attainment level. I have no doubt his contribution to the Steering Committee will be extensive. Steering Committee members help us provide research support to a new generation of scholars to investigate the various channels through which economic inequality, in all its forms, affects economic growth and stability.”

“Since its founding, Equitable Growth has seeded cutting-edge research, contributing to a new understanding of the ways inequality can undermine economic dynamism and connecting that research with policymakers to make better-informed decisions,” said Auguste. “It has contributed to a new governing moment, in which we might build an economy in which meaningful work, caregiving, and innovation in communities and small business are better valued and rewarded. It’s an exciting time to partner with Equitable Growth’s team and the Steering Committee to help guide this vital work.”

Auguste has a long and diverse career in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. He co-founded and serves as CEO of Opportunity@Work, a nonprofit social enterprise that seeks to expand access to career opportunities so that all Americans can work, learn, and earn to their full potential in a dynamic economy. Auguste is the co-author of “Searching for STARs: Work Experience as a Job Market Signal for Workers without Bachelor’s Degrees,” an NBER working paper that explores the extent to which workers who are skilled through alternative routes, or STARs, can help fill the skills gap.

Before that, he served as deputy assistant to the president for economic policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council in the Obama administration, served on the Biden Policy Institute’s policy advisory board, and in 2020, co-chaired the Biden-Harris Economic Policy Committee. In 2005, he was elected director at McKinsey & Company, the first African American in that role. He has served on the board of trustees of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Yale University, the Pacific Council on International Policy, and Hope Street Group, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Auguste earned a B.A. summa cum laude in economics and political science from Yale University, where he was awarded a Truman Scholarship and the James Gordon Bennett Prize, and a M.Phil. and D.Phil. in economics from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar.

The Equitable Growth Steering Committee is made up of leading academics and former senior policymakers, including Princeton University economics and public affairs professor Alan Blinder; Michigan State University economics professor Lisa D. Cook; Harvard University economics professor Karen Dynan; Harvard Kennedy School economic policy professor Jason Furman; University of California, Berkeley economics and public policy professor Hilary Hoynes; Princeton University economics, public policy, and finance professor Atif Mian; Equitable Growth co-founder John Podesta; and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor emeritus Robert Solow.

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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.

Equitable Growth names economist Michelle Holder as new CEO

Holder will take the reins at 7-year-old nonprofit research and grantmaking organization dedicated to accelerating research on how economic inequality affects economic growth and stability

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Elena Waskey, 410-598-7532
ewaskey@equitablegrowth.org

WASHINGTON—The Washington Center for Equitable Growth Board of Directors today announced that economist Michelle Holder has been named its new president and CEO. Holder is an assistant professor of economics at John Jay College, City University of New York. Her research focuses on the Black community and women of color in the U.S. labor market. Holder will succeed former President and CEO and co-founder Heather Boushey, who currently serves as a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

“I am thrilled to join Equitable Growth as its new president and CEO,” Holder said. “As a labor economist focused on race, class, and gender, I know how critical Equitable Growth’s mission is, especially funding and examining research to show how economic inequality affects growth. Now more than ever, in this new governing moment, we have a chance to advance evidence-backed policies to promote equitable economic growth.”

“Equitable Growth was founded in 2013 to advance ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth,” said co-founder and Board Chair John Podesta. “In a relatively short time, the organization has grown into one of the most influential economic research organizations in Washington, supported by its network of academics who study how economic inequality affects growth. Dr. Holder’s expertise is absolutely critical as the organization continues to connect academia with the policymaking community to help build a strong, stable, sustainable, and equitable economy.”

Rising economic inequality across families and businesses, and the lack of progress on longstanding inequities by race, ethnicity, and gender, continue to generate new and pressing questions for the field of economics to confront. Through engaging deeply with the academic community, Equitable Growth seeks to understand what these trends mean for economic growth and stability and help policymakers take steps to foster improved living standards across the whole economy.

“Dr. Holder’s background in labor economics, coupled with her understanding of macroeconomics, makes her incredibly well-suited to lead Equitable Growth,” said Harvard economics professor Karen Dynan, who is also a member of the organization’s Steering Committee. “As the nation looks to rebuild post-pandemic, Equitable Growth will play an important role in elevating key research to help policymakers design economic policies that lead to broadly shared growth. Dr. Holder is equipped to build that bridge between academia and government.”

Holder has been a faculty member at the City University of New York since 2014 and will become an associate professor at John Jay College in August. Prior to joining CUNY, Holder spent a decade working as an applied economist in the nonprofit and government sectors, including as senior labor market analyst at the Community Service Society of New York and an associate financial analyst and economist at the Office of the New York State Comptroller. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in economics from the New School for Social Research, an M.P.A. from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in economics from Fordham University.

Named one of 19 Black economists to watch by Fortune magazine in June 2020, Holder has authored two books, including African American Men and the Labor Market during the Great Recession in 2017 and most recently, Afro-Latinos in the U.S. Economy, published in May 2021. Earlier this month, Holder testified before the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee for a hearing titled “The Gender Wage Gap: Breaking Through Stalled Progress,” and she was a featured speaker at the Black Women’s Economic Liberation Summit.

The organization retained the national executive recruitment firm BoardWalk Consulting in the president and CEO search. Holder will officially start in September.

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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.

More than 200 economists to Congress: Seize “historic opportunity to make long-overdue public investments” to boost economic growth

Led by Hilary Hoynes, Trevon Logan, Atif Mian, William Spriggs, statement implores Congress to “invest in a prosperous and equitable future”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Erica Handloff, 202-746-5747
ehandloff@equitablegrowth.org

WASHINGTON – Today, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth released a statement urging Congress to prioritize “robust and sustained investment in physical and care infrastructure along with science and technology to solve the problems of the 21st century.”

The statement—led by Hilary Hoynes, professor of public policy and economics at the University of California, Berkeley; Trevon Logan, professor of economics at The Ohio State University; Atif Mian, professor of economics, public policy, and finance at Princeton University; and William Spriggs, professor of economics at Howard University—is endorsed by more than 200 scholars, including one former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, one former U.S. Labor Secretary, one former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and two former chief economists at the U.S. Department of Labor, among others.

Endorsers of the statement ask for a “clear break from the recent history of declining public investment,” emphasizing that “the private sector alone is not capable of making the large-scale investments needed to address the overlapping structural challenges currently facing the country.” Those challenges include the climate crisis, structural racism and discrimination against Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities in the labor market and throughout the U.S. economy, and the lack of 21st century care infrastructure—leaving families, especially those led by women, struggling to balance caregiving obligations with work.

Research shows decades of declining public investment is damaging to U.S. communities and the economy as older infrastructure deteriorates and economic and social challenges go unaddressed. Such disinvestment leads to less knowledge creation, fewer good jobs, and slower employment growth in new sectors, placing the United States at an extreme competitive disadvantage in relation to other countries.

With the cost of borrowing at record lows, the signers call on Congress to seize this opportunity to reassert U.S. global leadership in the investment in technologies and physical and care infrastructure needs of the future.

A full list of signers is available here.

Following is the full text of the statement:

Dear Senate Majority Leader Schumer, Senate Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, and House Minority Leader McCarthy,

With the recently passed rescue package now providing additional relief and stimulus to families, policymakers have an historic opportunity to make long-overdue public investments in physical and care infrastructure to boost economic growth and productivity.

The share of our GDP invested in federally-funded research and development has fallen from around 2% in 1960 to just 0.6% today; this means less knowledge creation, fewer good jobs, and a harder time boosting employment in new sectors. Research—and common sense—tell us that this disinvestment is damaging for U.S. communities and our economy as older infrastructure depreciates and economic and social challenges go unaddressed.

This government disinvestment has also placed the United States at an extreme competitive disadvantage in relation to other countries. Among OECD countries, the United States ranks 22nd in government investment as a percentage of GDP. And female labor force participation has been largely in decline since 1999, in contrast to rising rates in other OECD countries that invest more heavily in care infrastructure.

In addition to federal research, physical infrastructure needs must be addressed. The private sector alone is not capable of making the large-scale investments needed to address the overlapping structural challenges currently facing the country, including:

  • The climate crisis, which poses an existential threat to humans across the globe, as well as largely unaccounted-for risks to our economy;
  • Structural racism and discrimination against Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities in the labor market and throughout the U.S. economy; and
  • The lack of 21st century care infrastructure, leaving families struggling to balance caregiving obligations with work and thus hampering labor force participation, particularly for women.

Investments alone will not correct structural racism. But, if designed correctly, a wide range of infrastructure investments in these areas can spur strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth by addressing long-standing racial and income inequality, driving clean energy, increasing consumer and commercial demand, supporting work, creating jobs, improving worker productivity, reducing economic uncertainty, and jumpstarting a new era of innovation.

With the cost of borrowing at record lows, now is the time for the United States to reassert global leadership in the investment of technologies and physical and care infrastructure needs of the future.

The next spending package should include robust and sustained investment in physical and care infrastructure along with science and technology to solve the problems of the 21st century. We need a clear break from the recent history of declining public investment. Let us come together as a nation and invest in a prosperous and equitable future.

Signed,

Dr. Hilary Hoynes
Professor of Public Policy and Economics, University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Trevon Logan
Professor of Economics, The Ohio State University

Dr. Atif Mian
Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Finance, Princeton University

Dr. William Spriggs
Professor of Economics, Howard University

The opinions expressed here reflect the personal views of the signees and should not be understood to reflect the views of any institutions with which they are affiliated.

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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.

Equitable Growth responds to passage of American Rescue Plan

Drawing on lessons learned from Great Recession, legislation provides much-needed support for workers and families

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2021
CONTACT:
Erica Handloff, 202-746-5747 ehandloff@equitablegrowth.org

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden yesterday signed the American Rescue Plan, which provides $1.9 trillion in critical public health investments to fight COVID-19, support struggling families, and grant aid to states, localities, tribes, and territories. The Washington Center for Equitable Growth commends Congress and the president for passing a federal rescue package that meets the scale of the problem and for taking steps to put our nation on a path to recovery that is strong, stable, and broadly shared.

In particular, the plan provides a third round of critical relief checks in response to the coronavirus recession and extends enhanced Unemployment Insurance, ensuring workers who have lost their jobs or had their hours cut will continue receiving the supplemental $300 per week through September 6. Research supported by Equitable Growth shows that robust UI benefits and direct stimulus, scaled to meet economic needs, can help mitigate hardship for individuals and families while also boosting the wider economy, preventing a more severe downturn.

Also notable is the law’s commitment to invest so that our nation emerges from the coronavirus recession stronger, more resilient, and more equitable. Key investments include:

  • Nearly $100 billion to combat the public health crisis, including funding for vaccine development and distribution and a robust testing and tracing program. The coronavirus is, first and foremost, a public health crisis, and our nation’s economic recovery depends on getting the virus under control.
  • $350 billion in funding for state and local governments to strengthen employee-employer relationships and sustain aggregate demand in the face of budget shortfalls, which have already left 1 in 20 state and local workers unemployed.
  • More than $100 billion to expand and improve the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, which will bolster family economic security for low- and middle-income families, reduce poverty, and improve families’ ability to invest in their children’s human capital development.
  • $130 billion to help schools reopen safely and $45 billion for child care relief so that students and teachers can return to school; child care workers can weather this crisis, especially in the face of declining enrollment fees; and women, who shoulder the bulk of care responsibilities and have disproportionately left the workforce during the pandemic, can return to work.
  • $12 billion for nutritional assistance, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which research shows pays health and economic dividends far into the future for both direct recipients and the economy at large.

But while the investments made in the American Rescue Plan are at an appropriate scale given current conditions, a growing body of research highlights the ongoing structural reforms that are necessary to address the underlying racial, climate, and economic crises laid all the more bare by the coronavirus pandemic. In the ongoing response, policymakers can address those fragilities by prioritizing the following:

  • Automate the recovery. Beyond this package, policymakers should continue to spend as much as is necessary to stabilize the economy and provide sustained relief. Congress has the ability to put economic relief on autopilot by tying it to economic indicators such as the unemployment rate, rather than arbitrary dates, so that relief keeps flowing until economic conditions improve.
  • Take action to improve U.S. economic measurements. To better reflect economic reality, Gross Domestic Product growth should be broken out for Americans in different income brackets and groups. Both Congress and the Biden administration should direct the Bureau of Economic Analysis to estimate the cost of producing these statistics quarterly and then include that amount in the president’s annual budget request. The administration should also ask Congress to permit the use of IRS tax return data to improve statistical reporting. To advance racial equity, the administration should equip researchers, agencies, and Congress with data tools that more accurately describe the experiences of workers of color and their families.
  • Tackle the climate crisis. Investments in climate and infrastructure are essential to ensuring long-term economic growth in the United States. Policymakers should prioritize funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by investing in technology and creating high-quality jobs, while also building out resiliency measures to mitigate the damage of future climate disasters. Without such investments, climate-related costs will continue to escalate, threatening both human life and economic growth.
  • Raise the minimum wage and improve enforcement of wage theft. Recessions have long-term negative effects on earnings for workers who are hit hardest, which can last long into the recovery, and evidence shows workers most exposed to income shocks during recessions are also key consumers. Policies that boost their incomes can limit the overall severity of recessions. Furthermore, this recession disproportionately affects workers of color, and research demonstrates that a robust and well-enforced minimum wage has the potential to reduce entrenched racial and ethnic wage disparities.
  • Provide federally guaranteed paid leave. Paid leave—including parental leave for new parents, medical leave to care for one’s own illness, and caregiving leave to provide care for loved ones—is a critical element of a well-functioning labor market and an important investment in the human capital of tomorrow’s workers. The next relief package should ensure every worker has access to a federal program that guarantees paid family and medical leave benefits so our nation fares better when the next crisis arises.

Following is a statement from Equitable Growth Vice President Casey Schoeneberger:

“I commend Congress and President Biden for passing the American Rescue Plan, which puts the United States on a path to make the necessary investments to address long-term structural inequality and allow for an economic recovery that is strong, stable, and broadly shared. Over the past four decades, the economy has become increasingly unequal, and the coronavirus recession has exacerbated those trends. Black, Latinx, and other Americans of color continue to be disproportionately affected by both the public health and economic crises.

The American Rescue Plan demonstrates a major step toward addressing these pressing burdens, providing much-needed support for families, small businesses, state and local governments, and the economy overall.

Critically, the law draws on lessons learned from the previous major downturn. Research shows that the Great Recession was prolonged and caused long-term scarring. In the decade following, wages stagnated, and working- and middle-class families had barely recovered when the coronavirus recession began, despite record-long economic growth. Indeed, younger workers, rural communities, and many families—especially families of color—never recovered.

The American Rescue Plan, with its sizable investment in supporting low-wage workers, demonstrates a commitment to fully addressing the consequences of the coronavirus recession with an eye toward a more equitable recovery.

Equitable growth will only be achieved if policymakers intentionally prioritize robust public investments in people and communities and sustain the workers and families who are the foundation of our economy. Even with the passage of this package, there is an ongoing need to address the structural fragilities in our economy that make us so vulnerable to economic shocks in the first place. Indeed, research shows that the risk of doing too little to support families and businesses far outweighs the risk of doing too much, and failure to invest enough will exacerbate systemic racial inequities and constrict broadly shared growth.

Congress and the Biden administration have taken an important step forward by providing workers and families with the support they need to weather this crisis and begin to rebuild. The passage of the American Rescue Plan provides a path toward our nation emerging on stronger footing with less economic inequality and more sustainable, equitable growth.”

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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.

Economic Think Tanks’ Letter to Congressional Leaders on the COVID Rescue Package

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2021
Contact: Erica Handloff, ehandloff@equitablegrowth.org

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, and Leader McCarthy:

In the midst of our ongoing health and economic crises that have left millions unable to pay their bills, policymakers need to take bold action to bolster our economy, reduce hardship, and forge a path to an equitable recovery. President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan – with its critical public health investments to beat COVID-19, its aid to help struggling families, and its assistance to states, localities, tribes, and territories – is an appropriate scale of new spending under current conditions.

Our nation continues to be battered by a vicious virus and the economic fallout from the pandemic. In December, some 27 million workers had lost their jobs or seen their hours and pay cut. The rise in long-term unemployment shows clearly that our economy remains very troubled. Black and Latinx people are disproportionately feeling the impact, with unemployment rates in December of 9.9 and 9.3 percent, respectively – well above the white unemployment rate of 6 percent, which is itself too high. In its January 26 monetary policy statement, the Federal Reserve noted the continued weakness in the economy saying, “The recovery in economic activity and employment has moderated in recent months with weakness concentrated in the sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic.” 

Household hardship remains significantly above pre-pandemic levels. Almost 24 million adults reported that their household sometimes or often didn’t get enough to eat, the most recent Census data show, and more than 15 million renters reported that they were behind on rent. Hardship rates are particularly high among families with children, particularly Black and Latinx households with children, raising serious concerns about the long-term consequences for children’s health and academic outcomes.

Congress must act fast and pass further legislation that reflects the scale of the crisis. The Emergency Coronavirus Relief Act, enacted in December, was a needed stopgap measure, but it didn’t do nearly enough to address the depth and breadth of today’s hardship. It will end far too soon, and it lacks key components of relief.

Repairing the economy and labor market will require that we get the virus under control, and that we also provide a significant amount of investment and support. With the economy down 10 million jobs and millions of people working part time because there isn’t enough business for them to work full time, the time for bold action is now. The economy will not fully recover until the virus is no longer a public health threat, which is why we must be aggressive in our public health response while we also support those who are struggling and boost the economy.

Prompt action is critical because crucial unemployment aid will end in March. That not only will hurt those workers, but it also will significantly hurt a struggling economy by reducing consumer spending. Congress needs to act so that people don’t once again lose their benefits for an unnecessary period, given the challenges that states face in administering benefits after a lapse in benefits and subsequent renewal.

Moreover, to address the challenge of benefit lapses, policymakers should ensure that relief measures stay in place at least into the fall, and then should be extended beyond that based on the underlying economic conditions. 

With sufficient federal spending to sustain demand in the economy and address the public health crisis, the economy could mount a robust recovery in 2021 once the virus is under control. But if the federal government withdraws support too soon, we could face years of weak growth and high unemployment, as borne out in the Great Recession and its aftermath. Avoiding that outcome should be our top economic priority.

The risk from providing too little in relief and economic recovery far outweighs the risk of providing too much. We urge you to act quickly to pass a robust pandemic relief package to control the virus, address hardship, and boost the economy. 

Sincerely, 

Rebecca Dixon, Executive Director,
National Employment Law Center

Thea Lee, President,
Economic Policy Institute

Greg Leiserson, Chief Economist,
Washington Center for Equitable Growth 

Sharon Parrott, President,
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

John Podesta, Founder and Chair of the Board,
Center for American Progress

Felicia Wong, President and CEO,
Roosevelt Institute

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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.

Washington Center for Equitable Growth CEO Joins Biden-Harris Transition Team, Search for New CEO Underway

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 11, 2020
Contact: Elena Waskey, ewaskey@equitablegrowth.org

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a nonprofit research and grantmaking institution with a mission to accelerate research on how economic inequality affects growth and stability, announced today that its President and CEO Heather Boushey has resigned effective Friday, December 11. Boushey will immediately join President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President–elect Kamala Harris’s transition team as a future member of the Council of Economic Advisers.

“Heather has built a remarkable organization, taking it from a start-up to one of the most respected economic think tanks in Washington, D.C.,” said John Podesta, who serves as chair of the board and co-founded the organization in 2013. “Her leadership, substantive knowledge, and deep understanding of the effects of growing inequality on growth will be missed at Equitable Growth, but she will be a tremendous asset to the Biden-Harris administration.”

“I’m incredibly honored to have worked side by side with so many dedicated colleagues and partners throughout the past seven years at Equitable Growth,” said Boushey. “Together we have built a strong organization to support new scholarship and elevate evidence-backed research that can help tell a new story about how the economy works and how it can benefit all Americans.”

Under Boushey’s leadership, Equitable Growth has grown into an organization with more than 45 employees and more than 300 grantees who help answer the most pressing questions on how inequality in all its forms affects growth and stability. Since its founding, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth has sought to connect scholars to the policymaking community, engaging them in a new set of questions around the most important economic trends of our time.

Rising economic inequality across families and firms, and the lack of progress on longstanding inequities by race, ethnicity, and gender, continues to generate new and pressing questions for economics to confront. Through engaging deeply with the academic community, Equitable Growth seeks to understand what these trends mean for economic growth and stability and to help the policymaking community take steps that will foster improved living standards across the whole economy. That complexity, combined with the organization’s dedication to building connectivity among disparate groups of academics and policymakers, enables the organization to make a real and lasting impact within the academic and policymaking communities.

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth has retained a national executive recruitment firm and formed a committee that has begun executing its search for the new President and CEO. During the search process, the board of directors will work closely with Vice President Casey Schoeneberger and the senior leadership team to execute on the organization’s work, support staff, and achieve Equitable Growth’s objectives and key results.

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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.

Washington Center for Equitable Growth brings together scholars, policymakers for third biennial grantee conference

Equitable Growth 2021: People and Research Advancing Economic Evidence elevates research on economic inequality and its effects on economic growth and stability

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 7, 2020
Contact: Erica Handloff, ehandloff@equitablegrowth.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth kicked off its third grantee conference, Equitable Growth 2021: People and Research Advancing Economic Evidence. The biennial conference, held virtually this year for the first time, brings together scholars and members of the policymaking community to showcase cutting-edge research from the organization’s network of grantees on how economic inequality affects economic growth and stability.

At this year’s conference, early, mid-career, and established scholars will have a chance to give and receive feedback on their research, as well as discuss the relevance of that research for an economic agenda in 2021 and beyond.

“Our mission is to advance evidence-backed ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth,” said Korin Davis, Equitable Growth’s director of academic programs. “At the heart of our organization is academic programming and grantmaking. We believe that research can effect real change when put into the hands of those with the power to act.”

Now in its seventh year of grantmaking, Equitable Growth has seeded more than $7 million to more than 250 scholars. The organization recently released its 2021 Request for Proposals, which details the organization’s specific interest in research projects across dimensions of inequality—race, ethnicity, gender, place, and environmental factors—as well as the ways in which public policies affect the relationship between inequality and growth.

The conference, which includes programming over four days, will include paper sessions, fireside chats, keynotes, salon conversations, and trainings. In addition to opportunities to learn about cutting-edge research, grantees will also have an opportunity to learn from peers and experts during professional trainings and informal salons focused on navigating the academic job market, mentoring graduate students and early career professionals, engaging with policymakers, working with the media, accessing administrative data, and public service opportunities.

Paper and panel sessions covered throughout the conference include:

  • Policies to Address the Impact of Race and Socioeconomic Status on Economic Outcomes
  • Labor Market Regulations and the Outcomes of Vulnerable Workers
  • The Role of Unemployment Insurance in Supporting Workers and the Economy
  • Climate Change and Environmental Harm
  • Measurement and Dimensions of Inequality
  • Competition and Market Structure
  • Markets, Innovation, and Equitable Growth
  • Concentration and Labor Markets

A more detailed agenda and a full list of participants is available here.

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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.

Equitable Growth CEO to depart for role with new administration

Boushey will serve as a member of the President-elect’s Council of Economic Advisers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 30, 2020
CONTACT:
Elena Waskey, 410-598-7532
ewaskey@equitablegrowth.org

WASHINGTON—The Washington Center for Equitable Growth today announced that President and CEO Heather Boushey will accept an appointment as a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers.

“I greatly look forward to working under the direction of future CEA Chair Cecilia Rouse and in partnership with Jared Bernstein as the other member of this critical council,” Boushey said. “While I will be leaving my position as President and CEO of Equitable Growth, the organization will continue to be a hub for scholars and policy thinkers who wish to develop and build out a new economic vision.”

Boushey has led the organization since its launch in 2013 and served as an adviser to President-elect Biden’s campaign. In 2016, she served as chief economist for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential transition team. Prior to founding the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Boushey was an economist at the Center for American Progress and has also held roles with the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the Economic Policy Institute. 

While at Equitable Growth, Boushey authored two books, Finding Time: The Economics of Work-Life Conflict, and most recently Unbound: How Economic Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It. She also co-edited Recession Ready: Fiscal Policies to Stabilize the American Economy and After Piketty: The Agenda for Economics and Inequality.

“Since its founding, Equitable Growth’s mission has been to change the way scholars and the policymaking community understand how economic inequality affects economic growth and stability,” said Vice President Casey Schoeneberger. “We’ve intentionally built an organization able to weather transformations. We will continue to execute on our institutional strategy to achieve that mission. We wish Heather all the best as she assumes a new role within the federal government and are proud to see President-elect Biden assemble a team of advisers who understand the role economic inequality plays in constricting widely shared growth.”

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth has retained a national executive search firm to assist with the recruitment of its next CEO.

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.

Equitable Growth releases policy agenda for U.S. antitrust enforcement

New report aims to restore competition in next administration, new Congress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2020
CONTACT:
Erica Handloff, 202-746-5747
ehandloff@equitablegrowth.org

WASHINGTON – Today, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth released a new report outlining a roadmap for the next administration and the incoming 117th Congress to address rising market power and restore a competitive U.S. economy. The authors, who represent some of the foremost experts in their fields, call for fundamental changes to competition policy, antitrust laws, and the enforcement of both.

“For far too long, the federal government has failed to adequately address the problem of rising market power in the United States,” explained Equitable Growth Director of Markets and Competition Policy Michael Kades. “This report provides a blueprint for policymakers of the changes needed to strengthen antitrust law and its enforcement, changes that will foster competition and innovation, prevent the abuse of market power, and reduce inequality.”

The report, which offers a bold new vision for the future of antitrust, is the work of seven academic experts with deep policy experience in antitrust enforcement:

  • Bill Baer, on leave, visiting fellow in Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution
  • Jonathan B. Baker, research professor of law, American University Washington College of Law
  • Michael Kades, director of markets and competition policy, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
  • Fiona Scott Morton, Theodore Nierenberg Professor of Economics, Yale University School of Management
  • Nancy L. Rose, Charles P. Kindleberger Professor of Applied Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Carl Shapiro, Professor of the Graduate School, Haas School of Business and the Department of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley
  • Tim Wu, Julius Silver Professor of Law, Science and Technology, Columbia Law School

Relying on cutting-edge research to advance their policy recommendations, the authors urge the new administration and Congress to:

  • Devote resources to the passage of new antitrust legislation and increase resources for antitrust enforcement
  • Revitalize antitrust enforcement with a focus on strengthening deterrence 
  • Commit to a “whole government” approach to competition policy, including the establishment of a new White House Office of Competition Policy to promote rulemakings that catalyze competition and reverse those that entrench incumbents or suppress competition

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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.