Ready for a new era of growth and impact

As we move forward, we see immense opportunity for Yale economics research to deliver even more impact far beyond university walls. To fully realize this opportunity, we need to make it easier for Yale faculty to pursue ambitious, policy-relevant economics research—especially large-scale, “laboratory-style” projects that require sustained support, coordination, and real-world engagement.

To do this, we need to strengthen the systems that support research from idea to execution, including project development, operational support, and the talent needed to carry work forward. Our goal is to ensure that doing this kind of high-impact work at Yale is not the exception, but the norm.

At the same time, we will expand partnerships with governments, funders, and institutions across the country—creating more opportunities for faculty to engage directly with real-world problems and take on larger, more ambitious projects.

By working closely with faculty to understand their goals, we will help build the connections, capacity, and pathways needed for their research to shape policy and practice.

When we think about the potential for research to transform our lives, many of us imagine big innovations or bold proposals to scrap existing systems and replace them with something new. We might envision the development and deployment of a new energy source, or a major overhaul of how the U.S. pays for health care.

But the truth is that while research can deliver big, breakthrough ideas, it can also dramatically improve our lives through narrower, more incremental changes. Small policy tweaks, when considered cumulatively over time, have the power to strengthen society and improve our daily lives. And we’ve already identified what many of those tweaks might be.

By helping identify proposed hospital mergers that deserve further scrutiny from antitrust investigators, we can prevent problematic hospital mergers across America and bring down health care costs. By paying state engineers a higher salary, we can build highways faster and for less money. By considering policies that affect how companies design their retirement plans, we can shrink retirement savings gaps and help workers from lower-income families save more for retirement.

These are just a few examples of learnings from recent Yale research that, if implemented, could improve how we work and live. The Tobin Center is dedicated to studying big, moonshot ideas, but we’re also working to uncover and motivate smaller-scale, evidence-based solutions that might not overhaul the system, but can improve people’s lives in real, measurable ways.

The world is changing faster than we ever expected. Threats to institutional stability, the rise of artificial intelligence, and crippling political polarization loom over us.

These challenges deserve our attention, but can also distract us from tackling more immediate concerns. For many Americans, the biggest challenges are not existential. They’re everyday problems that need solutions today–not the promise of change tomorrow.

We know economics research has answers to these problems. It can tell us how to lower the cost of childcare, or how to build more affordable housing. It can help states deliver Medicaid to more people for less money.

Moving forward, we’re focused on funding more of this important research and helping policymakers make use of it. We envision a future where policy is shaped by the best evidence. To build momentum for that vision, we need to deliver change on these important, everyday issues.

Across the country, governments want to use data to improve program design and policy outcomes. But doing so is operationally challenging, with resource constraints, siloed systems, and fragmented data across agencies making it difficult to see the full picture. Even when the right data exists and is accessible, integrating research into fast-moving policy processes requires not only technical expertise, but also persistence and creativity.

In Connecticut, we have an opportunity to work side-by-side with state partners to overcome these barriers. By embedding talent, strengthening data and research capacity, and supporting the integration of evidence into fast-moving policy processes, we aim to improve not only what government does, but how it does it.

This work will deliver a meaningful impact for Connecticut residents while also serving as a model for how universities can partner with governments to improve the services and programs we all rely on.

Over the last several years, we’ve learned that research organizations like the Tobin Center can provide value not only by seeding research on timely policy issues, but by helping to identify what research is missing and urgently needed.

This important work doesn’t always earn accolades, but it lays the groundwork for major transformations in years to come. As we move into our next phase of impact, we will continue to bring policymakers and academics together in conversation, so our faculty can use their expertise to answer questions we didn’t previously know to ask.

From the beginning, the Tobin Center has invested not only in our core programs, but in other efforts that we believe have immense potential to bring academic research and expertise into the policy arena.

We are pushing the frontiers of this work in partnership with colleagues at Yale and at universities nationwide. Through our work with SCALE at the Yale School of Public Health, we are developing new models for how researchers can work alongside governments to improve public systems. Through the Yale Planetary Solutions Project, we are exploring how to accelerate policy impact for urgent climate challenges. And through our growing network of university policy labs, we are working to harness collective expertise and drive more coordinated, transformative change.

In our next phase, we will continue to grow and connect these efforts, and to help define a new standard for how universities translate research into real-world impact.