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Research & Commentary

Research and analysis from the RAND von Furstenberg Family Budget Model Initiative.

Research

Mar 19, 2026

Tax Code Analysis Tool 1.0: Applying Machine Learning to Map the Tax Code

The authors describe a tool to analyze the U.S. tax code by building a graph database of legal text. The Tax Code Analysis Tool consists of a comprehensive graph database mapping Title 26 of the U.S. Code on internal revenue.
Mar 19, 2026

Unlocking the Tax Code with RAND's Tax Code Analysis Tool

To disentangle the U.S. tax code and help policymakers better understand the effects of proposed tax changes, researchers developed the RAND Tax Code Analysis Tool (CAT). This brief describes current CAT analyses and potential future capabilities.
Mar 12, 2026

Implications of the Trump Retirement Accounts Proposal: Potential Costs and Savings of an Alternative Retirement Plan for 63 Million Americans

President Donald Trump introduced the Trump retirement accounts (TRA) in his 2026 State of the Union address. This brief presents a one-, ten-, and 40-year cost analysis of the TRA and offers insights into its policy implications.
Mar 5, 2026

A Typology of Economic Shocks and Applications for Macroeconomic Analysis

The authors developed a typology of 20 types of economic shocks and an analytical framework for understanding the macroeconomic impacts of those shocks.
Dec 2, 2025

The Dynamics Behind Artificial Intelligence's Impact on Productivity Growth

The author provides a primer on what productivity is, why it is difficult to measure, what historical patterns reveal, and how these insights apply to evaluating the effect of artificial intelligence on the U.S. economy.
Oct 9, 2025

Preliminary Strategies for Reducing the Burden of Federal Debt: How the United States Reduced the Debt Burden Following World War II and What It Would Take to Do So Again

Through the RAND Budget Model, the authors demonstrate three ways besides default that U.S. policymakers could reduce the federal debt to the post–World War II lows by 2055: increase economic growth, raise revenue, and stabilize or reduce spending.
Aug 19, 2025

Federal Budget Mapping Tool

This paper describes a set of tools intended to help map the majority of U.S. federal spending to the people, communities, and businesses that receive those funds and the populations that benefit from the programs supported by that spending.
Aug 12, 2025

Impacts of the Retirement Savings for Americans Act: A Preliminary Analysis Using the RAND Budget Model

The Retirement Savings for Americans Act aims to provide retirement savings plans for more than 60 million Americans who lack access to employer-sponsored plans. This report describes fiscal effects of the bill and implications for future retirees.

Commentary