The Open Philanthropy Project awarded a grant of $500,000 over two years to the Center for American Progress (CAP). This grant aims to support CAP, a major progressive think tank, to hire an economist focused on macroeconomic stabilization policy, one of our focus areas within U.S. Policy.
CAP plans to hire an economist to lead its research on macroeconomic stabilization, and Marc Jarsulic (CAP’s Vice President of Economic Policy) will also play a substantial role in this work. CAP’s overall plan for this area, modeled on the early work that eventually led to its Commission on Inclusive Prosperity, is to:
- Hold convenings to better understand the field
- Produce research reports documenting important factors in macroeconomic stabilization (e.g. the impact of the Taylor rule on income distribution)
- Produce policy proposals
- Use its network and outreach capacity to share its research and proposals with the media, Congress, presidential administration, and Federal Reserve
CAP provided us with a list of proposed research topics, all of which struck us as potentially worthwhile. Our primary goal for this grant is to increase progressive capacity and attention around macroeconomic policy and business cycle issues. Our impression is that, while there are many labor economists working at progressive think tanks, significantly less attention has been devoted to monetary policy and other macroeconomic stability issues, and that CAP plays a particularly prominent role in setting, and reflecting, the progressive agenda.