Think Tanks
Here's a look at documents from think tanks
Featured Stories
IZA - Institute of Labor Economics DP No. 18229: Effects of Immigration on Places and People - Identification and Interpretation
BONN, Germany, Nov. 22 (TNSLrpt) -- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics issued the following discussion paper (No. 18229) in Oct. 2025 by Jan Stuhler, Christian Dustmann, Sebastian Otten and Uta Schonberg entitled "The Effects of Immigration on Places and People - Identification and Interpretation."
Here is the abstract:
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Most studies on the labor market effects of immigration use repeated cross-sectional data to estimate the effects of immigration on regions. This paper shows that such regional effects are composites of effects that address fundamental questions in the immigration debate
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BONN, Germany, Nov. 22 (TNSLrpt) -- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics issued the following discussion paper (No. 18229) in Oct. 2025 by Jan Stuhler, Christian Dustmann, Sebastian Otten and Uta Schonberg entitled "The Effects of Immigration on Places and People - Identification and Interpretation."
Here is the abstract:
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Most studies on the labor market effects of immigration use repeated cross-sectional data to estimate the effects of immigration on regions. This paper shows that such regional effects are composites of effects that address fundamental questions in the immigration debatebut remain unidentified with repeated cross-sectional data.
We provide a unifying empirical framework that decomposes the regional effects of immigration into their underlying components and show how these are identifiable from data that track workers over time. Our empirical application illustrates that such analysis yields a far more informative picture of immigration's effects on wages, employment, and occupational upgrading.
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View full discussion paper at: https://www.iza.org/en/publications/dp/18229/the-effects-of-immigration-on-places-and-people-identification-and-interpretation
[Category: ThinkTank]
IZA - Institute of Labor Economics DP No. 18225: Beliefs About Bots: How Employers Plan for AI in White-Collar Work
BONN, Germany, Nov. 22 (TNSLrpt) -- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics issued the following discussion paper (No. 18225) in Oct. 2025 by Eduard Brull, Samuel Maurer and Davud Rostam-Afschar entitled "Beliefs about Bots: How Employers Plan for AI in White-Collar Work."
Here is the abstract:
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We provide experimental evidence on how employers adjust expectations to automation risk in high-skill, white-collar work. Using a randomized information intervention among tax advisors in Germany, we show that firms systematically underestimate automatability. Information provision raises risk perceptions,
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BONN, Germany, Nov. 22 (TNSLrpt) -- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics issued the following discussion paper (No. 18225) in Oct. 2025 by Eduard Brull, Samuel Maurer and Davud Rostam-Afschar entitled "Beliefs about Bots: How Employers Plan for AI in White-Collar Work."
Here is the abstract:
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We provide experimental evidence on how employers adjust expectations to automation risk in high-skill, white-collar work. Using a randomized information intervention among tax advisors in Germany, we show that firms systematically underestimate automatability. Information provision raises risk perceptions,especially for routine-intensive roles.
Yet, it leaves short-run hiring plans unchanged. Instead, updated beliefs increase productivity and financial expectations with minor wage adjustments, implying within-firm inequality like limited rent-sharing. Employers also anticipate new tasks in legal tech, compliance, and AI interaction, and report higher training and adoption intentions.
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View full discussion paper at: https://www.iza.org/en/publications/dp/18225/beliefs-about-bots-how-employers-plan-for-ai-in-white-collar-work
[Category: ThinkTank]
IZA - Institute of Labor Economics DP No. 18215: Bridging Language Barriers: Impact of Large Language Models on Academic Writing
BONN, Germany, Nov. 22 (TNSLrpt) -- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics issued the following discussion paper (No. 18215) in Oct. 2025 by Burak Dalaman, Ali Furkan Kalay and Nathan Kettlewell entitled "Bridging Language Barriers: The Impact of Large Language Models on Academic Writing."
Here is the abstract:
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Large language models (LLMs) have altered the nature of academic writing. While the influence of LLMs on academic writing is not uncontroversial, one promise for this technology is to bridge language barriers faced by nonnative English-speaking researchers.
This study empirically
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BONN, Germany, Nov. 22 (TNSLrpt) -- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics issued the following discussion paper (No. 18215) in Oct. 2025 by Burak Dalaman, Ali Furkan Kalay and Nathan Kettlewell entitled "Bridging Language Barriers: The Impact of Large Language Models on Academic Writing."
Here is the abstract:
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Large language models (LLMs) have altered the nature of academic writing. While the influence of LLMs on academic writing is not uncontroversial, one promise for this technology is to bridge language barriers faced by nonnative English-speaking researchers.
This study empiricallydemonstrates that LLMs have led to convergence in the lexical diversity of native and nonnative speakers, potentially helping to level the playing field. There has also been an increase in language complexity for nonnatives. We classify over one million authors as native or nonnative English speakers based on the etymological origins of their names and analyze over one million abstracts from arXiv.org, evaluating changes in lexical diversity and readability before and after ChatGPT's release in November 2022.
The results demonstrate a sharp increase in writing sophistication among all researchers, with nonnative English speakers showing the greatest gains across all writing metrics. Our findings provide empirical evidence on the impact of LLMs in academic writing, supporting recent speculations about their potential to bridge language barriers.
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View full discussion paper at: https://www.iza.org/en/publications/dp/18215/bridging-language-barriers-the-impact-of-large-language-models-on-academic-writing
[Category: ThinkTank]
IZA - Institute of Labor Economics DP No. 18209: Gender Identity, Norms, and Happiness
BONN, Germany, Nov. 22 (TNSLrpt) -- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics issued the following discussion paper (No. 18209) in Oct. 2025 by Natalia Danzer, Rachel Kranton, Piotr Larysz and Claudia Senik entitled "Gender Identity, Norms, and Happiness."
Here is the abstract:
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How do gender identity and norms relate to happiness? This paper takes advantage of the 2024 European Social Survey, which asks respondents to report their feelings of femininity and masculinity, and studies the relationships between these self-assessments, (non-)conformity to gender norms, and life satisfaction.
The
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BONN, Germany, Nov. 22 (TNSLrpt) -- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics issued the following discussion paper (No. 18209) in Oct. 2025 by Natalia Danzer, Rachel Kranton, Piotr Larysz and Claudia Senik entitled "Gender Identity, Norms, and Happiness."
Here is the abstract:
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How do gender identity and norms relate to happiness? This paper takes advantage of the 2024 European Social Survey, which asks respondents to report their feelings of femininity and masculinity, and studies the relationships between these self-assessments, (non-)conformity to gender norms, and life satisfaction.
Theresults show a robust asymmetry between men and women. For men, feeling more masculine, behaving in ways more typical of men, and life satisfaction are all positively cross-correlated. For women, while feeling more feminine and life satisfaction are similarly positively correlated, behaving in ways more typical of women is, in contrast, associated with lower life satisfaction.
These patterns vary across European regions, potentially reflecting different histories. The results are robust to alternative measures of typical behavior of men and women and subjective well-being. The findings support theories of gender identity and reveal possible trade-offs implied by gender norms for women.
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View full discussion paper at: https://www.iza.org/en/publications/dp/18209/gender-identity-norms-and-happiness
[Category: ThinkTank]
IZA - Institute of Labor Economics DP No. 18200: Role of Fairness Ideals in Coordination Failure and Success
BONN, Germany, Nov. 22 (TNSLrpt) -- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics issued the following discussion paper (No. 18200) in Oct. 2025 by Andrzej Baranski, Ernesto Reuben and Arno Riedl entitled "The Role of Fairness Ideals in Coordination Failure and Success."
Here is the abstract:
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In a laboratory experiment, we study the role of fairness ideals as focal points in coordination problems in homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. We elicit the normatively preferred behavior about how a subsequent coordination game should be played.
In homogeneous groups, people share a unique fairness ideal
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BONN, Germany, Nov. 22 (TNSLrpt) -- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics issued the following discussion paper (No. 18200) in Oct. 2025 by Andrzej Baranski, Ernesto Reuben and Arno Riedl entitled "The Role of Fairness Ideals in Coordination Failure and Success."
Here is the abstract:
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In a laboratory experiment, we study the role of fairness ideals as focal points in coordination problems in homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. We elicit the normatively preferred behavior about how a subsequent coordination game should be played.
In homogeneous groups, people share a unique fairness idealhow to solve the coordination problem, whereas in heterogeneous groups, multiple conflicting fairness ideals prevail. In the coordination game, homogeneous groups are significantly more likely than their heterogeneous counterparts to sustain efficient coordination.
The reason is that homogeneous groups coordinate on the unique fairness ideal, whereas heterogeneous groups disagree on the fairness ideal to be played. In both types of groups, equilibria consistent with fairness ideals are most stable. Hence, the difference in coordination success between homogeneous and heterogeneous groups occurs because of the normative disagreement in the latter types of group, making it much harder to reach an equilibrium at a fairness ideal.
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View full discussion paper at: https://www.iza.org/en/publications/dp/18200/the-role-of-fairness-ideals-in-coordination-failure-and-success
[Category: ThinkTank]
Capital Research Center: Where Do Leftist Networks Go When They Die?
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary on Nov. 21, 2025:
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Where do leftist networks go when they die?
The death of ACORN, and its afterlife
By Michael Watson
In 2010, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known by the acronym ACORN, declared bankruptcy and dissolved. It was a moment of triumph for conservative activists who had implicated the left-wing network in controversial voter registration practices and who had caught network employees appearing to condone illegal activities on surreptitiously recorded videos.
But
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WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary on Nov. 21, 2025:
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Where do leftist networks go when they die?
The death of ACORN, and its afterlife
By Michael Watson
In 2010, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known by the acronym ACORN, declared bankruptcy and dissolved. It was a moment of triumph for conservative activists who had implicated the left-wing network in controversial voter registration practices and who had caught network employees appearing to condone illegal activities on surreptitiously recorded videos.
Butbankruptcy does not mean the underlying assets cease to exist, and dissolving the network does not mean that the local organizers will sit idle forever. In the case of ACORN, those local organizers ensured the network continued its work supporting left-wing politicians, labor union organizing campaigns, and radical low-income housing policies.
The stiff
Despite the election of ACORN ally Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008, the organization had an unhappy time from around then through its official dissolution in 2010. Conservatives had long suspected ACORN of engaging in voter registration fraud, and numerous ACORN-affiliated activists faced charges for their work with the group. ACORN had relied on federal funds for a substantial amount of its network operations, and faced Congressional action to strip future funds.
And then two right-wing undercover activists with a hidden camera started showing up at ACORN regional office to make ACORN's life even worse. The series of undercover stings conducted by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles showed ACORN staff appearing to aid the two in creating a prostitution ring, and increased the public pressure on ACORN as an organization. By the end of 2010, its position had become untenable, and ACORN filed for bankruptcy and ceased to exist.
The afterlife
But that was not the end of the ACORN network. The national structure may have dissolved, but the local roots were well established and lived on after ACORN died. Local-level constituent parts of the network continued operating much as they had been, with funding from institutional leftist donors like the Service Employees International Union to conduct union organizing campaigns. This is not disputed: By the mid-2010s, liberal outlets were enthusiastic about how the "successors" were continuing ACORN's work despite right-wing efforts to shut it down.
Striking with SEIU
The successor groups rose to national prominence as the grunts in the Service Employees International Union's "Fast Food Strikes" in the "Fight for $15" campaign. The SEIU has long sought to organize quick-service restaurants like McDonald's, seeking a foothold toward a potential billion-dollar windfall in dues revenues.
In late 2012, the union adopted an aggressive public relations strategy to pressure the company to agree to a "card check" unionization, to encourage the Obama administration to make regulatory changes favorable to union organizing, and to persuade left-wing local governments to enact substantial increases to minimum wages. Under the management of liberal political public relations firm BerlinRosen, the SEIU would stage-manage what it called "fast food strikes" for "$15 and a union."
But workplace-level organizing is hard. Drawing on existing activist allies is easy, and if the media is on one's side (and for Big Labor, it almost always is) activists in different shirts can be portrayed not as 'filling out the bodies' but as 'a broad-based grassroots coalition of community groups.' So the SEIU shoveled millions of dollars out the door to ACORN successor groups, among them New York Communities for Change (NYCC), Chicago's Action Now, Missourians Organized for Reform and Empowerment, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and the Black Institute, run by former ACORN head Bertha Lewis, to ensure that the ACORN successors were ready to support a multi-year national campaign.
In Heaven with Bill: When ACORN's successors ruled New York
In 2013, the New York City-based ACORN successors like NYCC and the Black Institute (alongside the campaign consultants at BerlinRosen) helped put a very good friend in that city's mayoral office: then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. The "Mayor from ACORN" invited former ACORN head Lewis to his victory stage to celebrate his securing the Democratic nomination, and reporting noted that de Blasio had worked closely with ACORN as a city and federal housing official.
De Blasio was also closely allied with labor unions, especially the 1199SEIU division of the SEIU. Not surprisingly, the union-tied mayor was intimately involved with the union-tied formerly-ACORN activist network.
Lessons
The ACORN successors continue their work, and continue morphing into the street-level grunts of whatever campaigns the radical left are conducting at any given time. They participated in the "summer of love" in 2020; through the ACORN-linked (but not lineally descended) Working Families Party, they helped bring socialist New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D) to power.
As Arabella Advisors goes to meet its reward and breaks into the Sunflower Services and Vital Impact networks, the lessons of ACORN are clear. The end of a network does not mean the end of its work--and Capital Research Center's work watching these networks does not end with their deaths.
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Michael Watson
Michael is Research Director for Capital Research Center and serves as the managing editor for InfluenceWatch.
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Original text here: https://capitalresearch.org/article/where-do-leftist-networks-go-when-they-die/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Capital Research Center: InfluenceWatch Friday - Nov. 21, 2025
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following wrapup:
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InfluenceWatch Friday
By Jonathan Harsh
InfluenceWatch, a project of Capital Research Center, is a comprehensive and ever-evolving compilation of our research into the numerous advocacy groups, foundations, and donors working to influence the public policy process. The website offers transparency into these influencers' funding, motives, and connections while providing insight often neglected by other watchdog groups.
The information compiled in InfluenceWatch gives news outlets and other interested parties
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following wrapup:
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InfluenceWatch Friday
By Jonathan Harsh
InfluenceWatch, a project of Capital Research Center, is a comprehensive and ever-evolving compilation of our research into the numerous advocacy groups, foundations, and donors working to influence the public policy process. The website offers transparency into these influencers' funding, motives, and connections while providing insight often neglected by other watchdog groups.
The information compiled in InfluenceWatch gives news outlets and other interested partiesresearch to use in reporting on significant topics that are often overlooked by the American public.
CRC is pleased to present some of the most significant additions to InfluenceWatch in the past week:
* Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a United Nations (UN) agreement for member nations to promote biodiversity conservation. It is partnered with other UN institutions such as the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the United Nations Development Program. Partners listed on the Convention's website include the World Wide Fund for Nature (also known as the World Wildlife Fund), Friends of Ecosystem-based Adaptation, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and The Nature Conservancy.
* Western North Carolina Workers Center (WNCWC) is a labor-aligned advocacy group that helps organize workers around Asheville, North Carolina, particularly regarding health and safety issues in the poultry-processing industry. It is a participant in the AFL-CIO's Worker Center Partner Program which connects worker centers with state and regional labor union federations and labor councils. Funders of WNCWC have included the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), the Ford Foundation, Interfaith Worker Justice, the Southern Vision Alliance, the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, and the NEO Philanthropy Action Fund.
* Nonprofit Information Networking Association (NINA) is a nonprofit that runs Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ), which publishes stories on nonprofits and civil society. Among other things, NPQ covers "equity-centered leadership, philanthropy, racial equity, economic justice, and nonprofit advocacy and public policy." NINA has received funding from the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the National Philanthropic Trust, the Kresge Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
* Maynard Institute is a media education nonprofit that promotes the "national, collaborative drive for equity, belonging, and diversity in news media." It has worked with the Associated Press, the Ida B. Wells Society, the Nieman Foundation, the Online News Association, Open News, Politico, and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. The Maynard Institute has received funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Democracy Fund, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the New Venture Fund.
* Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is a South Africa-based legal advocacy group that promotes left-of-center policies regarding migration, housing, environmentalism, and penal reform. Between 2007 and 2024, LHR received over $3 million in funding from the Ford Foundation. Other funders include the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, the International Institute for Environment and Development, and the European Commission.
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Jonathan Harsh holds a master's degree in political science from James Madison University and a bachelor's degree in political science from Beloit College. He edits entries and content of the InfluenceWatch website and contributes new content.
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Original text here: https://capitalresearch.org/article/influencewatch-friday-11-21-2025/
[Category: ThinkTank]
