Publications
The Hamilton Project produces and commissions policy proposals and analyses to promote broad-based economic growth by embracing a significant role for well-designed government policies and public investment.
Papers
A primer on SNAP work requirements
An explainer on work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) summarizes the research on work requirements and their efficacy.
Economic Security & Inequality
Employment & Wages
Social Insurance
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Posts
Work permit applications suggest prior immigration is still pushing up labor supply—for now
Employment & Wages
Immigration
Posts
Higher new Census population estimates will affect the employment report
Employment & Wages
Immigration
Posts
Low-income workers experience—by far—the most earnings and work hours instability
Economic Security & Inequality
Employment & Wages
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How stabilizing has fiscal policy been?
Louise Sheiner and Michael Ng investigate the cyclicality of fiscal policy over the past 40 years, finding that fiscal policy has been increasingly countercycl…
Addressing modern debtors’ prisons with graduated economic sanctions that depend on ability to pay
The use of monetary sanctions to punish crimes ranging from minor traffic or public order offenses to the most serious felonies is ubiquitous in the United Sta…
Nine facts about state and local policy
Policy debates often focus only on major decisions made in Washington, DC. But for many Americans, the decisions made much closer to home have just as large, i…
Labor market considerations for a national job guarantee
In this framing paper, Ryan Nunn, Jimmy O'Donnell, and Jay Shambaugh evaluate the potential labor market impacts of several employment support policies, wi…
Place-based policies for shared economic growth
For a century, the progress our nation made toward realizing broadly shared economic growth gave our economy much of its unparalleled strength. However, for th…
Development economics meets the challenges of lagging US areas
Development economics research has made substantial progress in addressing poverty, poor health and education, and other problems of struggling areas. In this …
The geography of prosperity
Ryan Nunn, Jana Parsons, and Jay Shambaugh investigate the factors that have created concentrated prosperity in the United States while leaving many places beh…
The Main Street Fund: Investing in an entrepreneurial economy
State business incentives tilt the economic playing field in favor of large, incumbent firms and thereby discourage economic dynamism. However, basic collectiv…
