Events

On May 16, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth co-convened a forum to explore policy options to reduce the impact of the next recession. 

On March 15, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution will host a forum exploring reforms to monetary sanctions, including bail, fines, fees, and forfeitures.

On January 31, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution hosted a forum exploring how to improve public policy outcomes at the state and local level.

On December 6, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution hosted a forum to explore the considerations that motivate employment support proposals and the merits of different approaches. It also examined the challenges and barriers facing low-wage workers who continue to find themselves either on the margins of the labor force or out of the labor force altogether. 

On October 15, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities co-hosted a forum to explore work requirements and the role of anti-poverty programs.

On September 28, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution hosted a forum to explore the most effective policy options to foster place-based policies for shared economic growth.

On June 13, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution will host a forum to explore the most effective policy options to foster a more dynamic and competitive economy.

On April 25, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and the George W. Bush Institute co-hosted a forum to explore whether broadening the scope of school accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act would spur states and schools toward improving school quality and student achievement. 

One simple question—Are wages rising?—is as central to the health of our democracy as it is to the health of our economy. For the last few decades, the U.S. economy has experienced real wage stagnation. On February 28, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution hosted a forum to explore the most effective policy options to revitalize wage growth. 

The recent slowdown in productivity growth has led to a renewed focus on policies that can support or interfere with technological progress and innovation. Researchers who study the rules governing intellectual property have become concerned that the current system functions poorly, often impeding innovation rather than promoting it. At the same time, inefficiencies in the research and development pipeline have unnecessarily limited innovation. On December 13, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution hosted a policy forum to explore the most effective policy options to address these challenges.

On October 19, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, LeanIn.Org, and Stanford Law School co-hosted a forum at Stanford University exploring public policies to promote women’s economic opportunity. The forum included a fireside chat with Facebook chief operating officer and LeanIn.Org founder Sheryl Sandberg and remarks by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and Stanford Law School Dean M. Elizabeth Magill. The forum also featured three moderated roundtable discussions on topics including: advancing women’s participation in the workforce; expanding access to affordable, high-quality childcare, and building lifelong economic security.

On September 26, The Hamilton Project at Brookings hosted a forum on wage growth in The United States. The forum explored several key questions, including: What can and should be done to promote the economic growth that will lead to higher earnings for more American workers? How do we ensure that these gains are broadly shared, resulting in robust wage growth for as many workers as possible? In conjunction with this event, The Hamilton Project released a new framing paper exploring wage trends and their underlying economic determinants that underlie them.

On April 26, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution hosted a policy forum to explore the best ways to address challenges facing both K-12 and postsecondary education, including: teacher shortages, high school student engagement, college quality and access, and student debt.

Despite an expected shift in energy and environmental priorities in the coming years, several key challenges present clear opportunities for bipartisan cooperation. On March 27, The Hamilton Project and the Energy Policy Institute at University of Chicago (EPIC) co-hosted a forum exploring opportunities for progress on energy and climate policy. The forum included a series of roundtable discussions, with a focus on two Hamilton Project policy proposals on fuel economy regulation and enhancing urban resilience to new climate risk.

The modern economy is more reliant on data than ever before. Without reliable information about the economic and social environment, making sensible choices that produce positive outcomes in commerce, research, and governance is impossible. Although the federal government’s statistical agencies play a vital role in generating this information, their value is often overlooked. On March 2, the Hamilton Project at Brookings and the American Enterprise Institute convened a policy luncheon discussion highlighting the important role of government statistics.

The last decade’s decline in productivity—coupled with very low interest rates and declining public investment—presents a challenge and an opportunity for economic policy. In response, many policymakers and experts have proposed investments in public infrastructure, raising questions about which types of infrastructure projects are worth pursuing and how to finance them effectively. On February 7, The Hamilton Project hosted a policy forum exploring fiscally responsible policy options for funding and financing infrastructure investments.

On December 20, The Hamilton Project hosted a roundtable discussion offering a retrospective on the advancements in civil rights and criminal justice policy during the Obama Administration on topics ranging from: 21st Century policing; sentencing reform; and hiring discrimination. The discussion also explored remaining opportunities for civil rights and criminal justice policy advancement in the years ahead, as well as the next steps for state and local governments to build upon the policy momentum experienced on these issues in recent years.

There were approximately seven million Americans living under correctional supervision in 2014, and many more who have exited supervision in the United States. Accordingly, identifying and implementing effective reentry policies would yield far-reaching benefits for the formerly incarcerated, their communities, and society at large. On October 21, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution hosted a forum exploring policy options aimed at creating more opportunities for people with criminal records and facilitating successful reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals.

During the past 100 years, life expectancy at birth has increased by about 25 years in the United States. However, in sharp contrast to this broader trend, certain demographics—notably older whites and low-income Americans—find their life expectancies either stagnating or declining. On June 29, The Hamilton Project at Brookings will host a policy forum addressing trends in American life expectancy, including the recent life expectancy divergence for certain demographics.

In the years following the Great Recession, many economists and policymakers agreed that fiscal stimulus was critical to improving the faltering economy and helping to save or create millions of jobs. There is less agreement, however, on whether the stimulus should have been larger, if it contained the correct mix of tax cuts and targeted government spending, and whether it optimally utilized income support programs—notably TANF and SNAP—to stabilize the economy and protect millions of households from falling into poverty. On May 23, The Hamilton Project at Brookings hosted a policy forum addressing how to make better use of fiscal stimulus in future downturns, with a focus on three new Hamilton Project papers.

Food insecurity impacts one in seven households in the United States and affects families with a range of incomes—two-thirds of food insecure households have incomes above the poverty line. On April 21, The Hamilton Project hosted a breakfast forum exploring policy solutions to alleviate food insecurity. In conjunction with the event, The Hamilton Project released a new set of economic facts on food insecurity, SNAP and nutrition-support programs.  

Education is a powerful force for advancing opportunity, prosperity, and growth. It is also a key predictor of future earnings and a significant determinant of a range of other measures of well-being. Following the recent enactment of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), many observers have agreed that forward-thinking policies are needed to build upon that legislation and further advance equal opportunity for all students. On March 28, The Hamilton Project at Brookings hosted a policy forum exploring options for strengthening student learning through innovation and flexibility, with a focus on three new Hamilton Project papers.

Through technological advances, businesses today are able to connect customers to services more seamlessly than ever before. However, the workers providing these services are difficult to classify within the traditional labor-law dichotomy of employees and independent contractors. On December 9, The Hamilton Project hosted a policy forum addressing these labor market challenges in the online gig economy, and released a new paper by Alan Krueger (Princeton University) and Seth Harris (Cornell University). The forum included two moderated roundtable discussions. 

Following the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, many observers have agreed that new and forward-thinking policy solutions are needed to confront the enduring economic challenges in health care and health insurance markets. On October 7, The Hamilton Project hosted a policy forum addressing these economic challenges in an evolving health care market. The Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman delivered framing remarks.