The Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE) supports and disseminates economic policy research, with a particular focus on the Wisconsin economy and state-level economic policy issues.
Featured Research
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EVENT – How We Lost Faith in the American Dream — and How to Get It Back
Please join us on October 19 for a talk with Lee E. Ohanian of UCLA and Hoover Institution
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Hospital Market Concentration in Wisconsin, 2018–2025: Evidence from Hospital Discharge Data
Seven of Wisconsin’s eight regional hospital markets are highly concentrated. All eight grew more concentrated from 2018 to 2025.
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Rebuild the Badgers, Not Just the Roster
How Wisconsin fell behind in college football’s new market, and how to make the rebuild last
Additional Research
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Wisconsin’s Manufacturing Advantage Endured: The Manufacturing and Agriculture Credit, 2013–2025
For every 100 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin’s border counties in 2012, there were about 117 in 2025. Across the state line, 100 became 96.
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“Our College System Would Go to Hell Very Quickly”: America’s Two College Admissions Markets
Most colleges don’t have Harvard’s admissions problem. At Harvard, seats are scarce. At many colleges and programs, the scarce thing is the student.
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Reports of Wisconsin’s Brain Drain Are Greatly Exaggerated: The State’s Real Talent Problem Is Who Doesn’t Come
Wisconsin’s college-educated residents do not leave at unusually high rates. The deeper weakness is that relatively few educated newcomers arrive, especially from far away and among people born in other states.
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Funding and Autonomy in Wisconsin Public Higher Education: A Response to the Wisconsin Technical College System
Wisconsin remains near the bottom nationally in its four-year-to-two-year funding ratio under alternative measures of enrollment.
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Wisconsin’s Love Affair with Its Technical Colleges: Seventh and Forty-Third, Wisconsin
Wisconsin ranks 7th nationally in public support per student for its technical colleges—and 43rd for its universities.
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Wisconsin Cannot Tax What Leaves
Wisconsin has spent decades losing too much young talent. It has so far avoided an Illinois-style high-income outflow. The next governor should try to fix the first without creating the second.
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Hospital Prices in Wisconsin and Illinois: A Cross-State Comparison
Wisconsin hospital prices are 25.6% higher than Illinois for the same inpatient services. The gap is remarkably consistent across hospitals, procedures, and payers
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Winning the AI Race
Wisconsin can win the AI buildout without sticking families and manufacturers with the bill. Build the power. Protect local control. End special deals. Make large users pay their own costs.
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The Collapse of Badger Football Is Not a Football Story
It is a budget story. WI competes in markets with a budget model built for a slower world. The state effectively constrains what the university can charge and directly limits what it can borrow.