Issues

At the Archbridge Institute, we bring a fresh perspective to academic research
by encouraging a multidisciplinary approach to better understand
the nature of economic mobility.

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Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Job Creation

For most, a job is still the best way to climb the income ladder. In addition to providing income, jobs offer opportunities to gain skills, knowledge, and experience as well as grow social and professional networks that enable people to flourish, perhaps even by creating something new themselves. Innovators and entrepreneurs play a crucial role in maintaining and expanding these opportunities.

Economic and Social Mobility

To the extent that the American Dream can be quantified, intergenerational economic mobility has become the quintessential data point. To what extent are people able to exceed their parents income as adults? How should we measure that and have these measurements changed over time? Are there trends we can observe in these areas? This section explores these questions in precise detail.

Education and Skill Development

Doing productive work, meeting the needs of the market, or pushing toward the next innovation are often results of well developed human capital. That means developing and maintaining both more formal cognitive skills and less formal social or “soft” skills. Both are important aspects of ensuring that individuals have the space to develop the competencies they need both in education and in the labor force.

The American Dream

The Dream of America is one where every person, no matter their background, is free to live a better, richer, and fuller life. This section explores how that idea is understood today, using a combination of polling, data, and insights from contemporary strivers seeking to build and live their own American Dreams.

Meaning and Existential Agency

Building on the commitment to a multidisciplinary approach to questions of economic mobility and human flourishing, this section combines cutting edge research and public polling to bring the tools of psychology into conversation with those of economics to provide a richer picture of these concepts.

 

Social Capital and the Independent Sector

While sound public policies are important, there is a limit on what government policy can achieve. Ultimately, true transformation and flourishing is discovered and lived at an individual level. Personal relationships of reciprocal responsibility are an essential part of truly flourishing. Better understanding, facilitating, and highlighting the people and institutions engaged at this level of engagement is a key part of understating the puzzle of human flourishing.

Recent Studies

Licensing Reform in Alaska

Licensing Reform in Alaska

Click here to open the PDF in a new Tab. Why Does Occupational Licensing Matter in the Last Frontier? As far as official barometers of Alaska’s labor market go, the state is near the national average. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in December 2023 the...

Social Mobility in the 50 States

Social Mobility in the 50 States

Click here to open the PDF in a new tab. Overview When people think of the American Dream, they consider the ability to better one’s life and achieve one’s goals. They are either directly or indirectly speaking about social mobility. In this index, we examine...

Intergenerational Mobility, Social Capital, and Economic Freedom

Intergenerational Mobility, Social Capital, and Economic Freedom

Click here to open the PDF in a new tab. Key Findings Many scholars have examined the role of social capital in determining economic and social mobility. However, few have tied the role of market institutions (namely, economic freedom) in determining social mobility....

The Archbridge Institute is a non-partisan, independent, 501(c)(3) public policy think tank. Our mission is to lift barriers to human flourishing.

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Washington, DC 20036

lifting barriers. lifting lives.

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