Learn more about tools, models, and mechanisms that have been used to advance economic progress.

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Democratic Participation

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Ranked Choice Voting
Ranked Choice Voting

Ranked choice voting gives voters more power to express their preferences, helping to elect candidates with broader support and foster more representative, democratic outcomes.

Participatory Budgeting
Participatory Budgeting

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic process that allows community members to decide how to allocate a portion of public funds, fostering civic engagement and collaboration between residents and local governments.

Public Campaign Financing
Public Campaign Financing

Public campaign financing is reshaping elections by reducing the influence of big money, empowering grassroots candidates, and making democracy more accessible — but can it overcome the challenges of rising costs and outside spending?

Worker Centers
Worker Centers

Worker centers represent a transformative approach to labor organizing by providing essential services and support to workers who often fall outside traditional union structures, particularly immigrants and those in precarious employment.

Economic Policy & Innovation

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Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)

The Earned Income Tax Credit is one of the nation’s most effective anti-poverty programs, though its complexity, gaps in coverage, and low awareness leave room for reform and expansion.

Worker-Centric Trade Policy
Worker-Centric Trade Policy

Worker-centric trade policy places workers at the center of U.S. trade, advancing labor rights and fair wages through tools like the USMCA’s Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, while facing challenges of scope and impact.

Sovereign Wealth Funds
Sovereign Wealth Funds

Sovereign wealth funds help resource-rich countries stabilize their economies and share wealth more broadly, but their success depends on strong institutions and safeguards against political misuse.

Green Banks
Green Banks

Green banks are financial institutions that use public-private partnerships to fund clean energy projects, reduce investment risks, and make renewable energy more accessible, but recent funding freezes have stalled federal support for their expansion.

Income Sharing Agreements (ISAs)
Income Sharing Agreements (ISAs)

Income sharing agreements fund a student’s education in exchange for a share of their future income.

Quantitative Easing (QE)
Quantitative Easing (QE)

Quantitative easing (QE) is an unconventional monetary policy tool used by central banks to stimulate economies during recessions when traditional interest rate policies are insufficient. This overview examines QE’s implementation during the 2008 Great Recession and COVID-19 pandemic, its benefits, risks, and broader societal implications.

Digital Democracy

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Facial Recognition Technology
Facial Recognition Technology

Facial recognition technology (FRT) raises critical concerns about exploitation, privacy, discrimination, and worker rights —disproportionately impacting marginalized communities.

Data Cooperatives
Data Cooperatives

Data cooperatives are emerging as a promising solution to counter exploitation in the digital economy — empowering workers to control, monetize, and collectively govern their personal data.

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