Wendy Edelberg

Wendy Edelberg is director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, a policy initiative focused on economic growth and shared prosperity. She previously served as research director at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), where she led the economic analysis underpinning federal budget projections and policy cost estimates. Her research focuses on labor markets, household finance, fiscal policy, and economic mobility. Edelberg contributes to policy debates through research publications, congressional testimony, and public commentary on economic conditions. Her experience at the CBO provided deep expertise in the methodology of official economic forecasting — including the modeling assumptions behind potential output estimates, unemployment rate projections, and interest rate sensitivity of the federal debt — giving her public commentary an unusual level of technical grounding. At the Hamilton Project, she leads research programs that combine rigorous economic analysis with specific policy proposals on labor market reform, healthcare costs, housing supply, and access to education, bridging academic research and actionable policy recommendations.