Parental Leave: Is There a Case for Government Action?

Paid parental leave provides workers with financial compensation during temporary absences following the birth or adoption of a child. Private companies often provide paid leave and the federal government mandates 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave. Some policymakers have pushed for further government action. They claim that government-supported leave would markedly improve workers’ lives by improving labor-market outcomes and reducing gender inequality. In a new paper, Cato scholar Vanessa Brown Calder provides economic research and federal data that suggest otherwise.

New Cato Journal Looks at European Constitutionalism and Restoring the Rule of Law in Financial Regulation

An American constitutionalist looking east today, seeing everything from Brexit to Grexit plus the reactions in European capitals, must be struck by the tension in the EU between exclusion and inclusion in its many forms, including individualism and collectivism. In the new issue of Cato Journal, Cato scholar Roger Pilon discusses how American constitutional theory and history, owing to the longevity of the document that is their subject, hold lessons for constitutionalism everywhere, but especially for European constitutionalism. Also in this issue, Charles Calomiris writes that the financial regulatory system has “increasingly adopted processes that are inconsistent with adherence to the rule of law.”

Economic Freedom of the World: 2018 Annual Report

As economists from Adam Smith and Milton Friedman to Paul Samuelson and Larry Summers have stressed, freedom of exchange and market coordination provide the fuel for economic progress. In the 2018 Economic Freedom of the World report, Hong Kong and Singapore once again occupy the top two positions. The other nations in the top 10 are New Zealand, Switzerland, Ireland, the United States, Georgia, Mauritius, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. It is worth noting that the United States returned to the top 10 in 2016 after an absence of several years.

Freedom: Art as the Messenger

The Cato Institute welcomes artists working in any medium to address the concept of Freedom: Art as the Messenger. We are living in an era where people are finding their combative voice but having little conversation or dialogue. The goal of this inaugural exhibition is to provide a medium for that conversation.

This exhibition invites all investigative points of view in all media; 2-D, 3-D, audio, and video. A full spectrum of interpretation is invited — whether personal, emotional, general, realistic or imagined, communal, or individual — addressing Freedom in all its manifestations through art.

Recent Commentary

Events

October 10

Romance of the Rails: Why the Passenger Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need

Featuring the author Randal O’Toole, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; with comments by Art Guzzetti, Vice President of Policy, American Public Transportation Association; Jim Mathews, President, Rail Passengers Association; and Marc Scribner, Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute; moderated by Jason Kuznicki, Editor, Cato Institute.

12:00PM to 1:30PM EDT
Hayek Auditorium, Cato Institute

October 12

Cato Institute Policy Perspectives 2018

Featuring Jonathan Haidt, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, New York University; Greg Lukianoff, President and CEO, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education; Co-Authors, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure; Peter Goettler, President and CEO, Cato Institute; Jason Kuznicki, Research Fellow and Editor, Cato Books and Cato Unbound, Cato Institute; Sallie James, Director of Development, Cato Institute; and Clark Neily Vice President for Criminal Justice, Cato Institute.

10:30AM to 2:00PM EDT
InterContinental Barclay Hotel - 111 E 48th St, New York, NY

October 17

The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy

Featuring the author Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, and Contributing Editor, Foreign Policy magazine; with comments by Stephen Wertheim, Visiting Scholar, Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and Visiting Assistant Professor in History, Columbia University; moderated by Christopher Preble, Vice President of Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute.

12:00PM to 1:30PM EDT
Hayek Auditorium, Cato Institute

More Events

Of Special Note

Monetary Policy in an Uncertain World

Monetary Policy in an Uncertain World: Ten Years after the Crisis

Ten years after the 2008 financial crisis we are again facing the possibility of economic turmoil as the Fed and other central banks exit their unconventional monetary policies. Although central banks will move gradually, unforeseen circumstances could trigger a flight to safety and a collapse of asset prices. Contributors to this new Cato Institute book draw lessons from the decade of unconventional monetary policies and offer proposals for reducing monetary uncertainty, including adopting a rules-based monetary regime.

Special! 10 Copies for $10

Cato Pocket Constitution

To encourage people everywhere to better understand and appreciate the principles of government that are set forth in America’s founding documents, the Cato Institute published this pocket-size edition.

Now Available

Home Study Resources

The Cato Institute offers a wealth of online educational audio and video resources, from self-paced guides on the ideas of liberty and the principles of economics, to exclusive, archived lectures by thinkers such as Milton Friedman and F. A. Hayek. Browse through some highlights of our collections, for personal study or for use in the classroom.

36th Annual Monetary Conference: Monetary Policy 10 Years after the Crisis

Ten years after the 2008 financial crisis, we are again facing the possibility of economic turmoil as the Fed and other central banks exit their unconventional monetary policies. Although central banks will move gradually, unforeseen circumstances could trigger a flight to safety and a collapse of asset prices.