Renewed Institutions. Effective Government. Shared Prosperity.
Strengthening liberal democracy through innovative policy solutions.
Recent Analysis
Can corporate scandals reinvigorate democracy?
Pepper Culpepper and Taeku Lee find that corporate scandals can often mobilize the public and wider interests to overcome big business power, including after the financial crisis.
EPA’s deregulatory claim doesn’t survive its own cost-benefit analysis
A Treasury grant program reduced its processing times from 233 to 75 days. What went right?
Legal Immigration in Numbers: March 2026 Status Update
Featured Analysis
Testimony: State of the bulk power system
Testimony of Dr. Liza Reed, Director of Climate and Energy Policy at Niskanen Center for the United States Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing: “State of the Bulk Power System.”
Back to the base-ics: How taxable wage base reforms can strengthen unemployment program solvency
We can’t ‘incarcerate our way out of crime.’ But we can deter a lot more of it.
Musk’s claim that incarceration works to control crime is the beginning of the analysis, not the end. The next question is whether it works better than the available alternatives.
Implementing new licensing pathways that work for international doctors and American patients
HOME field advantage: Leveraging HUD dollars to build more housing
Highlights
Hypertext
A Niskanen Center journal that debates how to best renew America’s political, economic, social, and cultural institutions.
Niskanen Center State Capacity USCIS Project
A practical application of state capacity principles to make the U.S. government more capable, responsive, and effective at administering legal immigration and delivering on its promises.
The Permanent Problem
A blog, podcast, and forthcoming book by Brink Lindsey about the challenges of capitalist mass affluence — in particular, how to make it sustainable, and how to translate material plenty into a society where most people can expect, in the words of John Maynard Keynes, to “live wisely and agreeably and well.”
The Realignment
The United States is in the midst of a dramatic political realignment with shifting views on national security, economics, technology, and the role of government in our lives. Saagar Enjeti and Marshall Kosloff explore this with thinkers, policymakers, and more.
The Vital Center
The podcast focuses on current politics seen in the context of our nation’s history. It highlights the policy initiatives of the Niskanen Center and other non-partisan institutions while drawing upon current academic scholarship and political literature from years past — including Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s 1949 classic “The Vital Center.”
The Science of Politics
The Science of Politics features up-and-coming researchers delivering fresh insights on the big trends driving American politics and policy today. In 30 minutes, you’ll get beyond punditry to data-driven understanding. Each episode goes in-depth on one hot topic in the news with two researchers who have just published relevant empirical studies. Hear about their new discoveries and get the broader context that’s lost in the daily news shuffle.
Events
Webinar: What’s next for state pathways for internationally trained doctors?
Webinar: From green goals to black ink: Reforming carbon accounting for a new era of competition
Virtual event: Family benefits in America: 2024 report card
WEBINAR: How states can improve UI eligibility verification
Virtual Event: Unlocking HVDC: How Congress can enable a more resilient grid
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