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While boosts in labor demand have helped young workers as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 recession, young people continue to grapple with a youth labor market that has been deteriorating for 20 years. Their prospects have been dimmed by three major recessions: the burst of the dot-com bubble (2001), the Great Recession (2007-2009), and the COVID-19 recession (2020). Further, long-term structural changes in the economy have favored older workers with more experience, training, and education while limiting opportunity for young workers.Youth Policy: How Can We Smooth the Rocky Pathway to Adulthood? examines the United States' fragmented and inadequate approach to youth policy against the backdrop of these economic pressures and recommends changes necessary to move toward a more comprehensive and holistic approach.

In partnership with the Postsecondary Value Commission, we conducted a thought experiment on the costs of inequality in the US education system. Our simulation found that the US economy misses out on $956 billion per year, along with numerous nonmonetary benefits, as a result of postsecondary attainment gaps by economic status and race/ethnicity. The Cost of Economic and Racial Injustice in Postsecondary Education finds that closing these gaps would require an initial public investment of at least $3.97 trillion, but the benefits would outweigh the costs over time. Equalizing educational attainment without increasing student debt for low-income adults could also boost GDP by a total of $764 billion annually.

This report makes the case that the United States' disjointed approach to youth policy has failed young people. In the current fragmented system, pre-K–12, postsecondary education, and the workforce operate in silos that allow many young people to fall through the cracks. In its place, the country needs an all-one-system approach that supports youth on their journey through education and training and into careers.

Over the past half century, postsecondary education has played an increasingly important role in career preparation in the United States. Having a college degree or certificate has become both more valuable in the labor market and more expensive, with much of the burden falling directly on students and their families. Meanwhile, the postsecondary landscape has become increasingly complex. Navigating the College-to-Career Pathway: The 10 Rules of Moving from Youth Dependency to Adult Economic Independence, published in partnership with the Postsecondary Value Commission, highlights key considerations for students as they prepare to make one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives.

Did you know that in the first year after graduation you can make more money with an associate's degree in nursing from Santa Rosa Junior College in California than with a graduate degree from some programs at Harvard University? Data from the College Scorecard reveal many more surprising details of post-college outcomes for students and families about that all-important first year after graduation. Buyer Beware: First-Year Earnings and Debt for 37,000 College Majors at 4,400 Institutions finds that first-year earnings for the same degree in the same major can vary by $80,000 at different colleges and universities. It also reveals that workers with less education can often make more than workers with more education, and that higher levels of education do not always result in higher student loan payments.

The Dollars and Sense of Free College measures the costs of three major free-college models as well as the cost of a plan put forth by 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, which shows the likely costs in the first year range from $27.8 billion to $75 billion. The report finds that the annual benefits of Biden's free college plan would exceed the annual costs of the program within a decade

The pressures of global competition, mass migration, and economic instability have produced a backlash in many parts of the world, namely a rise in authoritarian leaders. The Role of Education in Taming Authoritarian Attitudes finds that higher education can play a critical role in protecting democratic republics against the threat of authoritarianism.