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Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

The Center for Economic Security and Opportunity (formerly the Center on Children and Families) produces data-driven, non-partisan analysis to address the United States’ most challenging social policy questions.

Economic Studies
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The Brookings Institution

October

27
2026

The hidden price of college: Three perspectives on how families can navigate their most important financial decision

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Tuesday, 10:00 am - 11:00 am EDT

Featured Experts

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Tara Watson Director - Center for Economic Security and Opportunity, John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair, Senior Fellow - Economic Studies
Sarah Reber Headshot
Sarah Reber Cabot Family Chair - Economic Studies, Senior Fellow - Center for Economic Security and Opportunity
Isabel V. Sawhill Senior Fellow Emeritus - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Melissa Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at University of Maryland, researching domestic social policy, poverty, and inequality. Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, she’s a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution. Previously, Kearney directed the Hamilton Project at Brookings and co-chaired J-PAL’s State and Local Innovation Initiative. She is a senior editor of the Princeton/Brookings journal The Future of Children, editorial board member of American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and Journal of Economic Literature, and advisory board member for the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities, Smith Richardson Foundation, and Russell Sage Foundation.Melissa S. Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is also Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group; a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); a non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings; a scholar affiliate and member of the board of the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO); and a scholar affiliate of the MIT Abdul Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). She is a senior editor of the Future of Children, an editorial board member of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and Journal of Economic Literature, and a former co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources. She serves on the Board of Governors of the Smith Richardson Foundation. Kearney served as Director of the Hamilton Project at Brookings from 2013-2015 and as co-chair of the JPAL State and Local Innovation Initiative from 2015-2018.Kearney's academic research focuses on domestic policy issues, especially issues related to social policy, poverty, and inequality. Her work has been published in leading academic journals and has been frequently cited in the popular press. She has testified before Congress on the topic of U.S. income inequality. Kearney teaches Public Economics at both the undergraduate and PhD level at the University of Maryland. She holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied on a National Science Foundation graduate student fellowship and a Harry S Truman fellowship.
Melissa S. Kearney Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity, The Hamilton Project

Phil Levine
Phillip Levine Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity
Amy Goldstein Scholar in Residence - Economic Studies, Center on Health Policy
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Browse our newsletter archive to explore recent issues and expert insights.

Understanding the student loan landscape

The federal student loan program is undergoing its biggest overhaul in years, from the legal fight over income driven repayment to new limits on how much parents and graduate students can borrow. This collection gathers research and events from CESO on what has changed, who it affects, and the tradeoffs facing policymakers.

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Immigrants and the social safety net: Measurement, evidence, and policy developments

As policy moves quickly to restrict immigrants’ access to public benefits, this collection cuts through the conflicting numbers—mapping the shifting legal landscape, explaining why studies disagree, and showing what the strongest evidence actually reveals.

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State Safety Net Interactive

The social safety net is really 51 distinct systems—one for each state and D.C.—shaped by decades of shifting federal and state policy. Explore our updated interactive tool and companion analysis, which measure how program generosity has changed over time and varies across states, isolating the effect of policy rules from differences in need or take-up.

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