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Niskanen Center

The Niskanen Center’s social policy department is rooted in a simple but often overlooked premise: that an innovative private sector and a capable public sector are mutually dependent. Robust social policies protect and uplift those hurt by economic shocks and misfortune while avoiding regulatory approaches to social protection that undermine market dynamism. Together, a dynamic market economy and effective government form a coherent theory of a free and just society–and a foundation for America’s social policy.

Niskanen’s experts engage in policy research and development focusing on family economic security. They promote ideas and arguments that help ensure public policy innovations benefit children, their families, and the American economy, using advocacy and public policy reform strategies that cut across partisan lines.

State allies can call on Niskanen Center to:

Provide technical assistance for designing policies that support parents with newborn or recently adopted children.

This includes traditional paid family leave programs as well as newborn tax credit (“baby bonus” policies) and social assistance (“At-Home Infant Care” policies) approaches.

Provide technical assistance for designing child tax credits that support as many families as possible.

This includes helping you understand the current tax landscape in your state, the various policy levers involved, and their impact on families.

Provide guidance on policy messaging and opportunities for broadening your coalition.

Advocates in red and purple states face unique environments. We can help craft messages that resonate with a broad and bipartisan coalition of advocates and policymakers and think through potential coalition partners beyond the usual suspects.

Provide guidance on incremental reforms that can help overcome fiscal, administrative, or political barriers that advocates may face in their state.

Potential policy details can often change quickly during policy negotiations. We can help you understand which aspects of a policy could be revised to keep it moving along without losing policy efficacy.