Posted on October 22, 2008

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Sloan Foundation Launches Initiative to Study, Explain Financial Crisis

The New York City-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced grants totaling $2.7 million as part of a new initiative to study the ongoing financial market crisis and improve public understanding of economics and finance.

In keeping with the foundation's commitment to foster economic understanding and help institutions and individuals make wise decisions, the initiative will support efforts to analyze the causes and consequences of the current financial crisis and explore alternative institutional and regulatory reforms for improving market performance.

Grants totaling $1.7 million were awarded to the Brookings Institution for research on financial markets and institutions; the National Bureau of Economic Research to establish working groups focused on security design and incentives and relations among financial institutions; and the Wharton Financial Institutions Center to develop frameworks for guiding regulatory policy in the financial services sector. In addition, a $1 million grant was awarded to PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer to establish a biweekly series designed to improve public understanding of and literacy in economics and finance.

"As the world works through the current crisis, we need careful analyses of recent financial market performance, institutions, and regulation," said Sloan Foundation president Paul L. Joskow. "In funding research and outreach activities by many of the nation's leading economists, our goal is to provide theoretical, empirical, and practical foundations for the improvement of financial decision making."

“Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Funds New Initiative to Address the Financial Market Crisis.” Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Press Release 10/20/08.

Primary Subject: Civil Society
Secondary Subject(s): Education, Economic Crisis
Location(s): National, New York, New York City

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