Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (renamed in 1981 from the International Center for Economic Policy Studies) is an American conservative think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs.[4][1] The institute's focus covers a wide variety of issues including healthcare, higher education, public housing, prisoner reentry, and policing.[5] It was established in Manhattan in 1978 by Antony Fisher and William J. Casey.[6]
Formation
1978[1]
52 Vanderbilt Avenue
New York, NY 10017
U.S.
Revenue: $16,694,868
Expenses: $15,701,907
(FYE September 2021)[3]
International Center for Economic Policy Studies
The institute produces materials including books, articles, interviews, speeches, op-eds, policy research, and the quarterly publication City Journal. It is a key think tank and ranked in the Global Go To Think Tank Index (GGTTI) published by the University of Pennsylvania.[7] Its current president is Reihan Salam, who has led the organization since being appointed in 2019.[8]
History[edit]
Foundational years (1978–1980)[edit]
The International Center for Economic Policy Studies (ICEPS) was founded by Antony Fisher and William J. Casey in 1978.[4][1] ICEPS changed its name to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in 1981. The institute's first president was Jeffrey Bell, who was succeeded in 1980 by William H. Hammett, who served until 1995. In 1980, the institute (then ICEPS) began publishing its Manhattan Report on Economic Policy, a monthly periodical containing briefs by market economists and analysts. David Asman was the first editor of the reports and continued the post until 1982.[9]
Reagan-era activity (1981–1989)[edit]
During the early 1980s, the institute published several books on supply-side economics and the privatization of services. In 1981, Institute program director George Gilder published Wealth and Poverty, a book that some reviewers called the "bible" of the Reagan administration; the book focused on questioning the character of the poor, saying that "the current poor, white even more than black, are refusing to work hard."[10] A New York Times reviewer called it "A Guide to Capitalism", arguing that it offered "a creed for capitalism worthy of intelligent people", but noted that it was alternately astonishing and boring, "persuasive and sometimes highly questionable."[11] The book was a New York Times bestseller[12] and eventually sold over a million copies.[13]
Other books on supply-side economics published during this era include The Economy in Mind (1982), by Warren Brookes, and The Supply-Side Solution (1983), edited by Timothy Roth and Bruce Bartlett.[14] The institute sponsored a documentary film, "Good Intentions", in 1983 based on the book, The State Against Blacks by Walter E. Williams. The film debuted on New York area public TV station WNET on June 27, and presented Williams's thesis that government policies have done more to impede than to encourage black economic progress.
In 1982, the institute paid Charles Murray to write Losing Ground, published in 1984.[1]
Establishing City Journal and the Giuliani Mayoralty (1990–2000)[edit]
In 1990, the institute founded its quarterly magazine, City Journal. The magazine was edited by Peter Salins and then Fred Siegel in the early 1990s. Fortune editor Myron Magnet was hired by the institute as editor of the magazine in 1994, where he served until 2007. As of 2018, the magazine is edited by Brian C. Anderson. Lawrence J. Mone was named president of the institute in 1995, taking over from William H. Hammett. He joined the institute in 1982, serving as a public policy specialist, program director and vice president before being named the institute's fourth president.
The institute established the Center for Education Innovation (CEI) in 1989, which focused on promoting charter schools, through which the institute became "a mainstay of the school choice movement". The CEI helped create a number of small, alternative public schools in New York and advised New York Governor George Pataki in crafting the state's charter school law in 1998, which authorized the creation of autonomous public schools.[15]
Former senior fellow Peter W. Huber published his first book, Liability: The Legal Revolution and Its Consequences, in 1990. The book focused on tort law since the 1960s, arguing that a dramatic increase in liability lawsuits had led to numerous negative outcomes. Later on, Walter Olson's work at the institute included The Litigation Explosion, in 1992.
The institute had ties with the administration of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who had become a regular at Institute luncheons and lectures after his failed mayoral campaign in 1989. The Spring 1992 Issue of City Journal was devoted to "The Quality of Urban Life", and featured articles on crime, education, housing, and public spaces. The issue caught Giuliani's eye as he prepared to run for mayor again in 1993. The campaign contacted City Journal editor Fred Siegel to develop tutorial sessions for the candidate. Among the policies adopted by his administration was the "broken-windows" theory of policing, which had already begun to be adopted on some levels by leadership in the NYPD.[16]
During the 2000 election, candidate George W. Bush cited Myron Magnet's, The Dream and the Nightmare: The Sixties' Legacy to the Underclass (1993), as having an impact on how he conducted his approach to public policy. Bush went on to say "The Dream and the Nightmare by Myron Magnet crystallized for me the impact the failed culture of the '60s had on our values and society".[17]
Terrorism and social unrest (2001–2009)[edit]
After the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the institute formed the Center for Tactical Counterterrorism (CTCT), later renamed the Center for Policing Terrorism (CPT). The group was created at the request of the NYPD, to provide research into new policing techniques with the goal of retraining officers to become "first preventers" to future mass-casualty attacks.
Eddy brought on board Tim Connors, a West Point and Notre Dame Law School graduate, to oversee the day-to-day operations of the CTCT. The CTCT began publishing reports and white papers on intelligence fusion centers, local counterterrorism strategies, and intelligence-led policing. With help of institute staffers Mark Riebling and Pete Patton, the center produced briefings on terrorist attacks around the world and presented them at weekly meetings with the Counterterrorism Bureau. The institute's counterterrorism strategy also built upon "broken windows" and CompStat policing models by training police in problem-solving techniques, data analysis, and order maintenance.
In January 2005, the CTCT cautioned against the construction of a new United Nations structure over the Queens Midtown Tunnel, which would have increased the value of the tunnel as a potential terrorist target.[18] CTCT, and later CPT, continued publishing research until 2008 when it was absorbed into National Consortium for Advanced Policing.
2009–present[edit]
In 2010, Institute senior fellow Steve Malanga (a former Crain Communications executive editor) published Shakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy Against the American Taxpayer.
After the financial crisis of 2007–2008, senior fellow Nicole Gelinas wrote her first book, After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street — and Washington (Encounter, 2011). In the book, she argues that after over two decades of broken regulation and the federal government's adoption of a "too big to fail" policy for the largest or most complex financial companies eventually posed an untenable risk to the economy.[19] The institute has also worked closely with others, including Charles W. Calomiris at Columbia Business School. Calomiris criticized the Dodd-Frank financial regulations passed in response to the 2007–2008 financial crisis.[20][21]
Paul Howard, the institute's former director of health policy, advocated regulatory reform to allow private industry to develop medical devices and pharmaceuticals.[22][23][24]
In 2012, Institute senior fellow Kay Hymowitz released Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys, arguing that too many American men in their 20s have started to prolong adolescence. Governing magazine columnist and urban-policy blogger Aaron Renn also joined the institute in 2012.
In 2015, Heather Mac Donald popularized the term, the Ferguson effect (an increase in violent crime rates in a community asserted to be caused by reduced proactive policing due to the community's distrust and hostility towards police)[25][26] when she used it in a May 29, 2015, Wall Street Journal op-ed.[27] The op-ed stated the rise in crime rates in some U.S. cities was due to "agitation" against police forces.[28] Mac Donald also argued "Unless the demonization of law enforcement ends, the liberating gains in urban safety will be lost", quoting a number of police officers who said police morale was at an all-time low.[29] The following year, Mac Donald published The War on Cops, which asserted that a "new attack on law and order makes everyone less safe".[25] In the book, Mac Donald further highlighted the Ferguson effect,[25] and argued that claims of racial discrimination in policing are "unsupported by evidence", and are instead due to larger numbers of crimes being reported as having been committed by minorities.[25]
In 2021, the institute initiated an annual "Celebration of Ideas" in Palm Beach County, Florida. This was highlighted by The Wall Street Journal in a 2023 article noting the institute's growing presence in Florida.[30] In January 2023, Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo, director of the organization's initiative on critical race theory,[31] was appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to serve on the New College of Florida Board of Trustees.[32]