Our mission
We are a new research and grantmaking organization founded to accelerate cutting-edge analysis into
whether and how structural changes in the U.S. economy, particularly related to economic inequality,
affect economic growth
Over the past 40 years, economic inequality in the United States has returned to levels last seen in the
1920s. Today, the United States is in the top quarter of the world’s most unequal countries. Economic
mobility—a child’s likelihood of occupying a different position on the income ladder than his or her
parents did—has fallen well behind Canada, Great Britain, and other advanced economies. And
inequality has worsened over the course of the current economic recovery.
Economists have documented these changes extensively, but we need to know more about the affects, if
any, of rising economic inequality on America’s overall economic growth and stability. New research
suggests that growing inequality in the United States may have broad social and economic effects by
reducing stable demand for goods and services, dampening entrepreneurialism, undermining the
inclusiveness and responsiveness of political and economic institutions, limiting access to education, and
stunting individual development. Yet our understanding of how these mechanisms interact with the
broader economy is limited.
If, as new research suggests, worsening inequality erodes our economy’s ability to function efficiently
and at full potential, then we are faced with a second question: What are the best ways to promote more
equitable growth? While we know that certain public policy areas, such as education, are important for
encouraging both greater equity and stronger growth, an opportunity exists to improve our
understanding of how a broader set of government policies might do so.
Core to our mission is helping to build a stronger bridge between academics and policymakers so that
new research is relevant, accessible, and informative to the policymaking process.
To these ends, in the fall of 2013 we launched a competitive, peer-reviewed grantmaking program to
help establish new lines of inquiry and analysis, bring together diverse types of evidence, and encourage
collaboration across academic fields. Our first grants totaling $610,000 were announced in July 2014. In
the fall, we will solicit new requests for proposals for our second round of grantmaking in 2015. We
encourage researchers applying for funding to consider public policy in their research questions and we
are especially interested in proposals that support data collection and/or study the effects of inequality
on individual behavior. We welcome letters of inquiry from scholars at various stages in their careers.
CONTACT: Ed Paisley - Senior Director of Communications and Publications
202-478-6332 or [email protected]