Washington Center for Equitable Growth awards $1.1 million to scholars exploring how economic inequality impacts economic growth and stability
New round of grants places a particular emphasis on racial and ethnic elements of inequality, economic mobility, the impact of domestic outsourcing, market concentration, and climate and the environment
CONTACT:
Erica Handloff, ehandloff@equitablegrowth.org
Washington, D.C. – The Washington Center for Equitable Growth today announced that it will award research grants totaling $1,074,060 to seek evidence on important issues related to the intersections between economic inequality and economic growth and stability.
“Through our academic grants program, Equitable Growth aims to deepen our understanding of how economic inequality affects economic growth and stability,” said Greg Leiserson, Equitable Growth’s Director of Tax Policy and Chief Economist. “Each round of grantmaking adds to our portfolio of cutting-edge research that informs policymaking to support strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth. We are pleased to be able to continue our support for scholars doing this critical work.”
This marks the organizations’ seventh cycle of academic grantmaking and sets a new record for largest funding year to date. Since 2013, Equitable Growth has seeded more than $6 million to nearly 200 scholars through its competitive grants program.
The 46 economists and other social scientists who will participate in this funded research consist of faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and Ph.D. candidates at leading U.S. colleges and universities, as well as some 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
In this new round of grants, the organization placed a particular emphasis on racial and ethnic elements of inequality, economic mobility, the impact of domestic outsourcing, market concentration, and climate and the environment. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided generous financial support for research investigating economic mobility, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provided generous financial support for projects exploring the impact of domestic outsourcing on workers.
Equitable Growth has always had a focus on the racial and ethnic elements of inequality in the United States, and the events of 2020 have led the organization to commit to an even greater emphasis on racial inequality and justice, including a redoubling of efforts to strengthen the pipeline of early-career Black scholars and other scholars of color.
“For too long,” said Equitable Growth President and CEO Heather Boushey, “the field of economics has ignored the intersection of race and power in research agendas. That must change. At Equitable Growth, we commit to doing our part by funding more research based on the lived experience and legacy of structural racism.”
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 U.S. doctoral program. For more information on the grants awarded in 2020, click here.
To view the 2020 Request for Proposals, click here The 2021 Request for Proposals will be released in November 2020.
Full descriptions of the 2020 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.
