User:Vipul/Niskanen Center

The Niskanen Center is a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. headed by Jerry Taylor, who formerly worked on free-market environmental policy for the Cato Institute, another libertarian think tank.

Goals and guidelines
The Niskanen Center focuses on producing concrete deliverables, namely, libertarian-friendly legislation and regulation, working within the existing political framework. Their target audience is currently influential Washington insiders, rather than the general public, and includes: policy-oriented legislators, presidential appointees, career civil servants in planning, evaluation and budget offices, congressional committee staff, engaged academics, and interest group analysts. The focus is guided by their reading of the research on the determinants of public opinion. They use two important guidelines:


 * Embracing relative policy improvements: This includes putting forth second best or even third best or fourth best solutions.
 * Willigness to compromise: This includes tailoring their reform proposals to be compatible with the preferences of potential allies who do not share their beliefs.

Policy areas
The Niskanen Center focuses on a few policy areas: climate change, foreign policy and defense, immigration, political science, political theory, and technology and civil liberties. Its policy recommendations and efforts at political and policy change are focused on the United States.

Climate change
The Niskanen Center has departed from the position on climate change espoused by many of the bigger libertarian think tanks such as the Cato Institute. Specifically, the Niskanen Center has argued not only that anthropogenic global warming can have potentially significant negative effects, but has also endorsed the policy of a revenue-neutral carbon tax supported through a global tariff scheme. The Center has also rejected the idea that libertarianism entails disbelief in climate change or blanket opposition to government action against it.

The Niskanen Center's position on climate change has attracted negative feedback from some libertarians, but has been appreciated by others across the political spectrum.

Immigration
The Niskanen Center argues for expanding immigration to the United States. In particular, they have argued for protecting the Diversity Immigrant Visa program in the United States, increasing low-skilled immigration, and getting the United States to increase its refugee intake.

Good Ventures, a private foundation run by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna, made a $360,000 grant to the Niskanen Center in October 2015 to support its work on immigration policy, specifically the hiring of an Immigration Policy Counsel. The grant was made as part of the Open Philanthropy Project, a spinoff of a collaboration between Good Ventures and charity evaluator GiveWell.

People
The Niskanen Center was founded and is led by Jerry Taylor, who formerly worked at the Cato Institute, where he served as director of natural resource studies, assistant editor of Regulation magazine, senior fellow, and then vice president. Before that, Mr. Taylor was the staff director for the energy and environment task force at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Will Wilkinson, who also previously worked at the Cato Institute on happiness research, inequality, and other topics, and also spearheaded and managed Cato Unbound.

Board members include Yoram Bauman, Tom G. Palmer, John H. Cochrane, Tyler Cowen, Grover Norquist, and Reihan Salam.