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, established in Manhattan in 1978 by Antony Fisher and William J. Casey. The institute has produced books, articles, interviews, speeches, op-eds, policy research, and the quarterly publication City Journal. Reihan Salam is the current president of the organization, which he has led since 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 focused on questioning the character of the poor, saying that "the current poor, white even more than black, are refusing to work hard." 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." The book was a New York Times bestseller and eventually sold over a million copies.