The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (renamed in 1981 from the International Center for Economic Policy Studies) is a US conservative think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs. The institute's focus covers a wide variety of issues, including healthcare, higher education, public housing, prisoner reentry, and policing. It was established in Manhattan in 1978 by Antony Fisher and William J. Casey.

The institute produces materials including books, articles, interviews, speeches, op-eds, policy research, and the quarterly publication City Journal. Its current president is Reihan Salam, who has led the organization since being appointed in 2019.

History Foundational years (1978–1980) The International Center for Economic Policy Studies (ICEPS) was founded by Antony Fisher and William J. Casey in 1978. 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.

Reagan-era activity (1981–1989) 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 was a New York Times bestseller and eventually sold over a million copies. 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."Robert Asen, Visions of Poverty: Welfare Policy and Political Imagination (2012), p. 76.

A New York Times reviewer argued 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."

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.Timothy Roth and Bruce Bartlett, eds., The Supply-Side Solution (1983), p. 1. In 1982, the institute paid Charles Murray to write Losing Ground, published in 1984.

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.

Establishing City Journal and the Giuliani Mayoralty (1990–2000)

In 1990, the institute founded its quarterly magazine, City Journal. Lawrence J. Mone joined the institute in 1982 and was named president in 1995, taking over from William H. Hammett.

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.Hubert Morken, Jo Renee Formicola, The Politics of School Choice (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), p. 147-148, .

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.Trevor Jones, Tim Newburn, Policy Transfer and Criminal Justice (2006), p. 121, .

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".Joel Spring, Political Agendas for Education (2014), p. 107.

Terrorism and social unrest (2001–2009) 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).

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.

2009–present After the 2008 financial crisis, 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. 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 2008 financial crisis.

Paul Howard, the institute's former director of health policy, advocated regulatory reform to allow private industry to develop medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

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) when she used it in a May 29, 2015, Wall Street Journal op-ed. The op-ed stated the rise in crime rates in some U.S. cities was due to "agitation" against police forces. 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. The following year, Mac Donald published The War on Cops, which asserted that a "new attack on law and order makes everyone less safe". In the book, Mac Donald further highlighted the Ferguson effect, 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.

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. In January 2023, Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo was appointed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to serve on the New College of Florida Board of Trustees.

Programs

The institute founded its quarterly magazine on urban policy and culture called City Journal in 1990. , it is edited by Brian C. Anderson.

The Adam Smith Society was founded by the institute in 2011. Bloomberg describes it as a nationwide chapter-based association of business school students who "double down on" capitalism. , the organization said it had chapters at 33 business schools.

Created in 2006, the institute's Veritas Fund for Higher Education was a donor advised fund that invested in universities and professors. The fund invested in courses related to western civilization, the American founding, and political economy.

The institute formed its Project FDA in 2006 to focus on ways to improve FDA regulations. Notable members of the committee include former FDA commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach and former Oklahoma senator and Institute senior fellow Tom Coburn.

Economics21 (E21) was the institute's research center focused on economic issues. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor, directed E21 until her 2017 nomination as Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation. E21 partnered with the Shadow Open Market Committee.

In 2015, the institute launched The Beat, a series of email newsletters that focused on issues relevant to New York City, including transportation, education, quality of life, and the local goings-on at city hall.

The Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner was created in 2001 to recognize people who worked to revitalize American cities.Robert A. Katzmann, Daniel Patrick Moynihan: The Intellectual in Public Life (2004), p. 194. It is named after Alexander Hamilton. Throughout the years, the institute has expanded the scope of the prize to leaders on local, state, and national levels, working in public policy, culture, and philanthropy. Past honorees include: Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Dan Loeb, Ken Griffin, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, William F. Buckley Jr., Rudolph Giuliani, Tom Wolfe, Rupert Murdoch, Raymond Kelly, Henry Kissinger, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, George Kelling, Eva Moskowitz, Douglas Murray, Ross Perot Jr., Paul Singer, Jeff Yass, and Ben Sasse.

Funding and governance The institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by donations. For its fiscal year ending in December 2025, it reported revenue of $25.9 million and expenses of $27.1 million; its reported annual revenue was $11.5 million in fiscal 2011 and $26.9 million in fiscal 2023.

Much of the institute's financial support has come from the financial industry; Inside Philanthropy wrote in 2015 that its board of trustees was "packed with wall streeters", naming hedge fund founders Paul Singer and Cliff Asness and investors Richard Gilder and Roger Hertog among its funders and trustees. Singer chaired the board of trustees for 17 years, until 2025. In 2024, Bloomberg News reported on Singer's role as a leading financial backer of the institute's campaigns against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

In May 2025, former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos succeeded Singer as chairman of the board of trustees; Singer became chairman emeritus.

Policy positions and initiatives

State and local policy The institute focuses on both national and local issues, including municipal finance, public pensions, infrastructure, welfare, policing, and housing.

The institute pushed for welfare reform in the mid-1990s. On the 20th anniversary of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, the institute published a report by former senior fellow Scott Winship defending the act.

Howard Husock joined the Manhattan Institute in 2006 as vice president of policy research and director of the institute's Social Entrepreneurship Initiative.

Steve Malanga has criticized public-sector unions and said that states like California and New Jersey suffer from political leadership. Cities Malanga has profiled include Stockton, California; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Houston, Texas; and Dallas, Texas.

Josh McGee, vice president at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, joined the Manhattan Institute as a senior fellow in 2015. In 2020, McGee left the institute to become chief data officer of the state of Arkansas.

Broken windows theory