Burdening Foundations: Economic Costs of Assembly Bill 624
PRI Publication
By:  Jason Clemens, Lawrence J. McQuillan, Ph.D, K. Lloyd Billingsley, Adam Frey
6.1.2008

As California goes, so goes the nation. California is now leading the quest to impose new racial and gender reporting requirements on foundations as well as the charities that receive grants from them and the businesses that work with them. Such legislation will have national consequences as the framework is already being discussed in Washington, D.C. It is therefore critical that the costs associated with such reporting requirements be understood in advance.

Racial and gender reporting requirements will impose serious compliance costs on foundations, charities, and the businesses they work with. These are resources that could be used to support the many good works undertaken and completed by charities -- from providing shelter to the homeless, to food for the hungry, to education for the poor, to assistance for those in difficult circumstances, to support for the elderly. The benefits of such requirements will in no way come close to offsetting these serious and disconcerting costs.

Ending the Revenue Rollercoaster - The Benefits of a Three Percent Flat Tax in California
By: Robert P. Murphy, Lawrence J. McQuillan, Ph.D 
5.11.2008

The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, today released the results of a study to determine a revenue-neutral flat income tax rate for California. The report found that a 3 percent flat income tax for all Californians would help smooth the revenue rollercoaster from economic booms and busts – a factor that is largely responsible for California’s budget deficit, which could grow to $20 billion in the next fiscal year, according to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Read the study | Press Release 

U.S. Tort Liability Index: 2008 Report
By: Lawrence J. McQuillan, Ph.D, Hovannes Abramyan
3.11.2008

The U.S. Tort Liability Index: 2008 Report measures the best and worst tort systems in America. The Pacific Research Institute developed the Index as a tool for governors and state legislators to assess their tort systems and to enact laws that will improve the business climates of their states.

Read the study | Factsheet | Press Release | Features Page 

Jackpot Justice: The True Cost of America's Tort System
By Lawrence J. McQuillan, Hovannes Abramyan, and Anthony P. Archie

America’s out-of-control legal system imposes a staggering economic cost of over $865 billion every year according to a new scholarly study released today by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) a free-market think tank based in San Francisco, California. This figure is 27 times more than the federal government spends on homeland security, 30 times what the National Institutes of Health dedicate to finding cures for deadly diseases, and 13 times the amount the U.S. Department of Education spends to help educate America’s children. 

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Test Your Tort Literacy

Response to Judge Richard Posner's Commentary on Jackpot Justice  

Tort Liability Index: 2006 Report
By Lawrence J. McQuillan and Hovannes Abramyan

In the competition for jobs and capital investment among the states, those states that suffer from high tort costs will continue to lose jobs and businesses to states with superior tort systems, according to a new report released today by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California. The U.S. Tort Liability Index: 2006
Report ranks all 50 states in terms of relative tort burdens and relative tort reforms.

Read the study | Press Release | Features Page | Media Coverage

While many of the negative consequences of government intervention at the federal level have been well documented, the consequences at the state level have received much less attention. PRI’s U.S. Economic Freedom Index: 2004 Report ranks each of America’s 50 states according to their level of economic freedom. The report examines data from five areas of government intervention in markets: fiscal, regulatory, judicial, size of government, and welfare.

State by State Summaries | Press Release | HTML Study