A Research Project Studying Economic and Social Policies under Reagan
In 1981, the Urban Institute initiated a major research project, Changing Domestic Priorities. This project examined the shifts in the nation's economic and social policies under the Reagan administration and analyzed the effects of these changes on people, places, and institutions.
About the Research
The domestic policy changes set in motion by the "Reagan Revolution" were dramatic but difficult to document and analyze. In 1982, the Institute took on the hydra-headed task through the Changing Domestic Priorities project and spent eight years tracking and assessing the affects of policy change during and immediately after President Reagan's tenure. Three books and scores of reports, articles, and seminars later, the research yielded a telling history of an important political era and showed how empirical work could help the country grapple with its most persistent policy challenges—among them, poverty, health care, crime, drug abuse, economic growth, retirement obligations, and fiscal discipline.
The Reagan Experiment (1986) analyzed the major concerns, new policy directions, and first steps of the Reagan administration. The Reagan Record (1984) revealed a mixed record in achieving such goals as shrinking government's size and scope, reducing taxes, strengthening the military, streamlining regulation, and cutting entitlements. Challenge to Leadership: Economic and Social Issues for the Next Decade (1988) helped frame the national debates on the economic outlook, commitments to the next generation, the obligations of the haves to the have-nots, and trade-offs between individual liberty and public safety and well-being.
Findings
Findings from Changing Domestic Priorities touched on every sphere of policy and American life. Those that follow illustrate the breadth of the project. They also show the Institute's commitment to grounding policy research in data and putting choices into context:
- On family incomes: Established that family incomes were growing more slowly than in the past and began to document the growing inequality in the distribution of family incomes from the late 1970s onward.
- On family structure and roles: Analyzed how rising divorce rates and women's greater workforce participation created needs to reform child care and child-support practices.
- On economic growth: Showed how federal deficit-reduction measures of the 1980s translated into per capita income gains over the next five years and beyond.
- On persistent poverty: Assessed the social costs of the emerging urban underclass and its origins—family weaknesses, joblessness, and lack of education.
- On elder care: Extrapolated demographic changes and rises in health care costs to predict a cost crunch and propose ways to ease it without scrimping on care for the truly sick and poor.
- On taxes: Provided an historic record of the extraordinary shift in the 1980s in tax rates and the tax base.
- On fiscal choices: Compared belt-tightening strategies and found program cuts and revenue raisers that together could reduce the deficit if tough political choices were made.
- On international trade: Determined that the trade deficit of the 1980s stemmed from unsound policies, not an underlying lack of competitiveness, and warned against protectionism.
The Changing Domestic Priorities project had a lasting impact on the Institute. Through it, we gained experience monitoring policies and programs at the same time, and we learned how to respond quickly and strategically to rapid changes in the policy environment without undermining our commitment to conducting nonpartisan research of enduring value.
Publications
