Founded in 1986, the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy think tank. The purpose of its research and other activities is to enable scholars and leaders in business, labor, and government to work together on problems of common interest. Its findings are disseminated—via publications, conferences, seminars, congressional testimony, and partnerships with other nonprofits—to a global audience of public officials, private sector executives, academics, and the general public. Through this process of scholarship, analysis, and informed debate, the Levy Institute generates effective public policy responses to economic problems that profoundly influence the quality of life in the United States and abroad.