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 insurance systems 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, employment, economic development, healthcare, and housing through a supply-side lens. 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. Learn more about the social policy team and our research below.