Archbridge Institute

The Archbridge Institute publishes research-based articles about economic mobility³ and biographical articles on “American Originals,” highlighting a diverse group of people who overcame adversity in order to become successful. ⁴

The Archbridge Institute is an associate member of the State Policy Network. ⁵

Activity

The Archbridge Institute is a nonpartisan but right-leaning public policy think tank that conducts academic research to propose policy solutions intended to increase opportunities for individuals. ¹

The Archbridge Institute publishes articles about economic mobility in two categories, “Policy + Insights,” which focuses on new approaches through trends and polls, and “Inquiry & Analysis,” which finds new approaches to old questions through data. ³

In 2018, the Archbridge Institute published an article supporting occupational licensing reform, suggesting that mandatory job entrance requirements in certain states led to a decrease in employment growth. ⁶ A February 2020 article claimed occupational licensing negatively affected Iowa, claiming that it has cost Iowa at least 48,000 jobs and $287 million annually. ⁷

In 2018, the Archbridge Institute published an article discussing the uncertain effects of raising the national minimum wage to $15. Pointing to papers with data supporting negative effects as well as papers that found fewer negative effects, the Institute seems to believe that the minimum wage debate is more about “moral or political justifications” and less about economics. ⁸

In conjunction with the American Business History Center, the Archbridge Institute features biographical articles on “American Originals,” highlighting a diverse group of people who overcame adversity in order to become successful. Included in these articles are Walt Disney, Mary Pickford, and Arthur G. Gaston, among others. ⁴

Funding

The Archbridge Institute receives funding through donations by individual and like-minded organizations. Notable donors include the John Templeton Foundation, which contributed in 2017,⁹ and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which contributed between 2016 and 2018. ¹⁰

People

Gonzalo Schwarz is the founder, president, and CEO of the Archbridge Institute. Schwarz formerly served as the director of strategic initiatives at Atlas Network. ¹¹

Ben Wilterdink serves as the director of programs and formerly served as the director of the Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development task force at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ¹¹

Senior research fellow Clay Routledge is a professor at the Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth and an affiliate faculty member at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. ¹¹

Board of Directors

Board chair Ingrid Gregg is the former president and a current trustee of the Earhart Foundation, and a former president of the Philadelphia Society. Gregg currently serves on the boards of the Foundation for Economic Education, Ethics and Economics Education (E3NE), the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, the Philanthropic Enterprise, and the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. ¹²

Andreas is the director of entrepreneurship programs at the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America, a research fellow at the Acton Institute, an advisor to the Zermatt Summit, and co-founder of the SEVEN Fund. Widmer currently serves on the advisory boards of Catholics Come Home and the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship at Notre Dame University. ¹²

Board of Academic Advisors

Tyler Cowen is the chair of economics at George Mason University where he also serves as chairman and faculty director of the Mercatus Center. Cowen is the co-author of the blog Marginal Revolution and co-founder of Marginal Revolution University. ¹³

Simeon Djankov is the director of the financial markets group at the London School of Economics and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Djankov formerly served as a chief economist at the World Bank, where he currently serves as a member of the knowledge and advisory council. Djankov is a former associate editor of the Journal of Comparative Economics. ¹³

Senior fellow Steven Durlauf is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an associate director at the Center for the Economics of Human Development at the University of Chicago. ¹³ Durlauf formerly served as co-chair of the Research Network on Social Interactions and Economic Inequality at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. ¹⁴

Senior fellow James Heckman is an economics professor at the University of Chicago where he established the Center for the Economics of Human Development. Heckman is a research fellow at the American Bar Foundation and one of the founders of the Harris School of Public Policy. ¹³

Russ Roberts is the John and Jean De Nault Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and hosts the weekly podcast EconTalk. ¹³

Scott Winship is a resident scholar and the director of poverty studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Winship is the former executive director of the U.S. Congress’s Joint Economic Committee and has served as a fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and the Brookings Institution. Winship is the former research manager of the Economic Mobility Project at Pew Charitable Trusts, the former senior policy adviser at Third Way, and the former managing editor at The Democratic Strategist. ¹³

Board of Advisors

Juan Jose Daboub is the former managing director of the World Bank and the former Minister of Finance and Chief of Staff to the president of El Salvador. ¹⁵

Herbert Grubel is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, professor emeritus of Economics at Simon Fraser University, and former professor at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. ¹⁵

Gary Hoover is an entrepreneur-in-residence at the School of Information and a fellow of the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. ¹⁵

Cristian Larroulet formerly served as Minister of the Presidency of Chile and as co-founder and executive director of Libertad y Desarrollo, a Chilean public policy think tank. ¹⁵

Steve Mariotti is the founder of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. ¹⁵

Michael Strong is the co-founder of FLOW (Freedom Lights Our World), Radical Social Entrepreneurs, Conscious Capitalism, Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs, and Peace through Commerce. ¹⁵

Magatte Wade serves on the boards of ASNAPP (Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products) and the Whole Planet Foundation. ¹⁵