Economic Policy Institute
Encyclopedia
The Economic Policy Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
, liberal
, nonpartisan think tank
that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy. According to EPI's website, the institute was established to "broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers." EPI focuses on "the economic condition of low- and middle-income Americans and their families." EPI researchers, who often testify to Congress and are widely cited in the media, brought to light the disconnect between pay and productivity that marked the U.S. economy in the 1990s. The EPI's President is Lawrence Mishel
, a long-time member of Democratic Socialists of America
.
On January 11, 2007, the Economic Policy Institute launched the Agenda for Shared Prosperity, a new policy initiative that will formulate an economic policy agenda to reduce economic insecurity of working families and provide broadly shared prosperity. This project was launched at the public forum in Washington, D.C.
with a keynote address by Senator Jim Webb
.
The Global Policy Network (GPN) consists of policy and research institutions connected to the world's trade union movements.
The State of Working America is authored by EPI’s staff economists. The current 2008-09 edition was authored by Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Heidi Schierholz.
The State of Working America has been cited in the press and is used in various social sciences courses by universities and colleges.
One of EPI’s core functions is to track the living standards of working families. EPI's Living Standards and Labor Markets team calculates statistics on issues like state-level unemployment rates by race, ethnicity, and gender. The living standard program tells the story of how key economic variables are evolving, and explains what factors are driving these changes. This describes much of EPI’s daily activities, from their reference volume, The State of Working America, to communicating with a popular audience via blogs, radio, and TV appearances.
EPI notes that it offers policy recommendations "with the goal of influencing policy makers to adopt policies that are good for working people."
In 2009, EPI argued that a higher minimum wage rate would benefit low-income working families and help boost consumer spending and the economy.
Trade and globalization
EPI also works on issues of trade and globalization, producing trade and jobs data and analyses that are widely cited in Congressional debates and the media. The research examines outsourcing, offshoring, and the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector. Its stated goals include helping other countries adopt core labor standards, including rights of collective bargaining, and helping them create a middle class with the purchasing power to boost the economy. Among the policy-specific agenda items it promotes in pursuit of these goals are the abolition of child and forced labor and discrimination by ethnicity, gender, or caste.
Education
EPI produces research and publications in the field of education, ranging from pre-kindergarten level to higher education. Among the topics it addresses are the importance of teacher quality, charter schools and vouchers, and ways to close the educational achievement gap between the children from poor backgrounds and their better-off classmates. EPI also produces economic analysis on, for example, urban high school graduation rates and the effects of school reforms such as smaller classrooms and school choice programs.
The institute often partners with experts in the education field to author books and other publications. Some such recent partnerships include with Richard Rothstein, former New York Times education columnist and professor at the Columbia University Teachers’ College, who authored Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap.
Fiscal policy and public investment
EPI contributes to public policy debates on tax cuts, Social Security, public investment, federal budget issues and priorities, privatization, and the challenges facing state and local governments.
EPI critiqued the Bush administration's proposals for new federal tax cuts mostly for the highest income Americans, and offered an alternative economic stimulus plan. EPI's comprehensive economic stimulus proposal included one-time tax credits for lower and middle-income families, federal aid to hard-pressed state governments, and federal assistance for school renovation and construction. EPI claims that this program would have pumped an infusion of money into the economy at a critical moment, creating millions of jobs without generating federal budget deficits for years to come. EPI's economic roadmap was widely supported by progressive leaders and groups.
In 2005, the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress mounted a campaign to privatize Social Security. EPI joined forces with other progressive groups and organized labor to oppose this effort. EPI conducted research and analysis that laid out the costs and consequences for millions of seniors and families, especially for African Americans, for whom Social Security is a lifeline, and was instrumental in the successful nationwide effort to block the administration's plan EPI Research Associate William Spriggs made a contribution to the debate and the ultimate defeat of the administration's effort to overhaul and privatize the program., and Bailout Analysis.
Health Care
During the 2009 debate on Health care reform in the United States
some union
interests attacked proposals to replace the employer tax exclusion with a tax deduction that would apply to all Americans (not just those who enjoy the good employer benefits provided to many union members) including the Healthy Americans Act
bill sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden
. The EPI supported the perspective of these union interests in a series of reports, which provoked criticism from independent progressives. According to The Economist
, opposition to the removal of the tax preference given to employer provided health insurance "rejected the financing method recommended by most economists"
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, liberal
Liberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political philosophy centered on the unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion for all belief systems, and the separation of church and state, right to due process...
, nonpartisan think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy. According to EPI's website, the institute was established to "broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers." EPI focuses on "the economic condition of low- and middle-income Americans and their families." EPI researchers, who often testify to Congress and are widely cited in the media, brought to light the disconnect between pay and productivity that marked the U.S. economy in the 1990s. The EPI's President is Lawrence Mishel
Lawrence Mishel
Lawrence Mishel is president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., a progressive think-tank that seeks to advance the interests of American workers...
, a long-time member of Democratic Socialists of America
Democratic Socialists of America
Democratic Socialists of America is a social-democratic organization in the United States and the U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International, an international federation of social-democratic,democratic socialist and labor political parties and organizations.DSA was formed in 1982 by a merger of...
.
Activities
The Economic Policy Institute acts as the hub of the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN).On January 11, 2007, the Economic Policy Institute launched the Agenda for Shared Prosperity, a new policy initiative that will formulate an economic policy agenda to reduce economic insecurity of working families and provide broadly shared prosperity. This project was launched at the public forum in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
with a keynote address by Senator Jim Webb
Jim Webb
James Henry "Jim" Webb, Jr. is the senior United States Senator from Virginia. He is also an author and a former Secretary of the Navy. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
.
The Global Policy Network (GPN) consists of policy and research institutions connected to the world's trade union movements.
The State of Working America
The institute’s flagship publication is The State of Working America. The publication has been issued every two years since 1988, and the most recent issue is the 2008/2009 edition. According to the Economic Policy Institute, The State of Working America sums up the problems and challenges facing American working families, presenting a wide variety of data on family incomes, taxes, wages, unemployment, wealth, and poverty—data that enables the book's authors to closely examine the impact of the economy on the living standards of the American people. The book seeks to determine how well the U.S. economy is functioning from the perspective of working Americans and their families, and it has emerged as the authoritative source on income, wage growth, and distribution issues. It also includes regional analyses and international comparisons chapters.The State of Working America is authored by EPI’s staff economists. The current 2008-09 edition was authored by Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Heidi Schierholz.
The State of Working America has been cited in the press and is used in various social sciences courses by universities and colleges.
Major program areas
Living standards and labor marketsOne of EPI’s core functions is to track the living standards of working families. EPI's Living Standards and Labor Markets team calculates statistics on issues like state-level unemployment rates by race, ethnicity, and gender. The living standard program tells the story of how key economic variables are evolving, and explains what factors are driving these changes. This describes much of EPI’s daily activities, from their reference volume, The State of Working America, to communicating with a popular audience via blogs, radio, and TV appearances.
EPI notes that it offers policy recommendations "with the goal of influencing policy makers to adopt policies that are good for working people."
In 2009, EPI argued that a higher minimum wage rate would benefit low-income working families and help boost consumer spending and the economy.
Trade and globalization
EPI also works on issues of trade and globalization, producing trade and jobs data and analyses that are widely cited in Congressional debates and the media. The research examines outsourcing, offshoring, and the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector. Its stated goals include helping other countries adopt core labor standards, including rights of collective bargaining, and helping them create a middle class with the purchasing power to boost the economy. Among the policy-specific agenda items it promotes in pursuit of these goals are the abolition of child and forced labor and discrimination by ethnicity, gender, or caste.
Education
EPI produces research and publications in the field of education, ranging from pre-kindergarten level to higher education. Among the topics it addresses are the importance of teacher quality, charter schools and vouchers, and ways to close the educational achievement gap between the children from poor backgrounds and their better-off classmates. EPI also produces economic analysis on, for example, urban high school graduation rates and the effects of school reforms such as smaller classrooms and school choice programs.
The institute often partners with experts in the education field to author books and other publications. Some such recent partnerships include with Richard Rothstein, former New York Times education columnist and professor at the Columbia University Teachers’ College, who authored Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap.
Fiscal policy and public investment
EPI contributes to public policy debates on tax cuts, Social Security, public investment, federal budget issues and priorities, privatization, and the challenges facing state and local governments.
EPI critiqued the Bush administration's proposals for new federal tax cuts mostly for the highest income Americans, and offered an alternative economic stimulus plan. EPI's comprehensive economic stimulus proposal included one-time tax credits for lower and middle-income families, federal aid to hard-pressed state governments, and federal assistance for school renovation and construction. EPI claims that this program would have pumped an infusion of money into the economy at a critical moment, creating millions of jobs without generating federal budget deficits for years to come. EPI's economic roadmap was widely supported by progressive leaders and groups.
In 2005, the Bush Administration and its allies in Congress mounted a campaign to privatize Social Security. EPI joined forces with other progressive groups and organized labor to oppose this effort. EPI conducted research and analysis that laid out the costs and consequences for millions of seniors and families, especially for African Americans, for whom Social Security is a lifeline, and was instrumental in the successful nationwide effort to block the administration's plan EPI Research Associate William Spriggs made a contribution to the debate and the ultimate defeat of the administration's effort to overhaul and privatize the program., and Bailout Analysis.
Health Care
During the 2009 debate on Health care reform in the United States
Health care reform in the United States
Health care reform in the United States has a long history, of which the most recent results were two federal statutes enacted in 2010: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act , signed March 23, 2010, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 , which amended the PPACA and...
some union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
interests attacked proposals to replace the employer tax exclusion with a tax deduction that would apply to all Americans (not just those who enjoy the good employer benefits provided to many union members) including the Healthy Americans Act
Healthy Americans Act
The Healthy Americans Act , also known as the Wyden-Bennett Act, is a Senate bill that proposes to improve health care in the United States by transitioning away from how currently employers typically purchase their employees' health insurance for them, to having individuals purchase their own...
bill sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden
Ron Wyden
Ronald Lee "Ron" Wyden is the senior U.S. Senator for Oregon, serving since 1996, and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1996....
. The EPI supported the perspective of these union interests in a series of reports, which provoked criticism from independent progressives. According to The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, opposition to the removal of the tax preference given to employer provided health insurance "rejected the financing method recommended by most economists"
Notable members
- Lawrence MishelLawrence MishelLawrence Mishel is president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., a progressive think-tank that seeks to advance the interests of American workers...
, President - Christian DorseyChristian DorseyChristian Dorsey works at the Economic Policy Institute. His areas of expertise are community development, housing, race and the economy.-Career:Since Dorsey joined EPI in 2008...
, Director of External and Government Affairs - Dean BakerDean BakerDean Baker is an American macroeconomist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, with Mark Weisbrot. He previously was a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and an assistant professor of economics at Bucknell University. He has a Ph.D...
, research associate - Teresa GhilarducciTeresa GhilarducciTeresa Ghilarducci is the Irene and Bernard L. Schwartz Chair of Economic Policy Analysis and director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis in the Department of Economics at The New School's New School for Social Research...
, research associate - Usha HaleyUsha HaleyUsha C. V. Haley is an influential American author and academic, currently Chaired Professor of International Business at Massey University in New Zealand, Distinguished Guest Professor in International Business at ITESM in Mexico and associated with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC....
, research associate - Joel RogersJoel RogersJoel Rogers is an American academic and political activist. Currently a professor of law, political science, public affairs and sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he also directs the Center on Wisconsin Strategy and its projects, including the Center for State Innovation, Mayors...
, research associate - John Schmitt, research associate