Comment by thegrim33

Comment by thegrim33 9 days ago

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Somewhat meta, but can someone explain what an organization like this CEPR .. actually is?

I see these types all the time, they're the ones that produce various "studies" that are always get linked on HN. They usually have some generic name, some combination of various buzzwords, and their website is them displaying all the various "research" and "studies" they've produced.

Their stated goal is apparently to just "promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people’s lives".

How do they actually make money? They say they've got 33 staff members and 14 board members/advisors. Do they all work for free?

Do they actually sell some product somewhere? I see nothing on their site where something is for sale or where you can hire them for anything. Are they supported by ads somewhere?

All they seem to do is just spend year and year pumping out various "studies" and articles. Are there unknown backers paying them to produce this content?

mcsaucy 9 days ago

> How do they actually make money? They say they've got 33 staff members and 14 board members/advisors. Do they all work for free?

Propublica's nonprofit explorer[1], and specifically the Form 990 filings[2], may be useful.

[1]: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/522... [2]: from 2022 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/522...

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  • waveBidder 9 days ago

    wow they're banking ~1/3 of their budget? that seems excessive.

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pessimizer 9 days ago

> Somewhat meta, but can someone explain what an organization like this CEPR .. actually is?

It's a think tank. They generate good policy and good ways for politicians to explain that policy.

> How do they actually make money?

I've given them money. They've been around for a long time. I'm a big Dean Baker fan.

> All they seem to do is just spend year and year pumping out various "studies" and articles.

You say this as if it were a bad thing.

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burkaman 9 days ago

It looks like CEPR is funded mostly by donations, but some think tanks also make money by performing specific studies for funders. Sometimes a government agency or corporation wants to study the potential effects of a policy change or something like that, but doesn't have the capacity or expertise to do it themselves, so they will contract a think tank to do the work. There will be a clear disclaimer if that is the case though.

> Are there unknown backers paying them

There should never be any unknown backers. If you ever see an article like this that doesn't have a big "Our Funders" link in the page footer or somewhere else, you should be suspicious.

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  • jjk166 9 days ago

    > There should never be any unknown backers. If you ever see an article like this that doesn't have a big "Our Funders" link in the page footer or somewhere else, you should be suspicious.

    Yeah but sometimes the big funders for "Americans For Prosperity" are "Americans Against Poverty" and "People For Prosperity" who are both in turn funded by "People Against Poverty" which is funded in part by "Americans For Prosperity" so figuring out where exactly the funding is ultimately coming from can be challenging.

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