The Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.

We recognize that race, gender, and place intersect with and intensify the challenge of economic inequality and we address these dynamics by advancing an inclusive vision of economic justice. For over 25 years, EOP has focused on expanding individuals’ opportunities to connect to quality work, start businesses, and build economic stability that provides the freedom to pursue opportunity.

We collaborate with national and local leaders across the United States – nonprofit leaders, policymakers, labor leaders, business leaders, educators, academics, and more – and we actively seek input and ideas from individuals and communities affected by proposed approaches to address economic opportunity challenges. Through our leadership and fellowship programs; applied research and evaluation; data and analysis; and dialogue with diverse stakeholders, we work at both local and national levels to build understanding and galvanize action to address the challenge of economic opportunity in America.

Join our mailing list and follow us on social media for regular updates on our work.

Credit Scoring for Microenterprise Lenders
Publications

Credit Scoring for Microenterprise Lenders

This white paper examines ways credit scoring can help U.S. microlenders increase efficiency, improve risk management and achieve greater scale.

FIELD Forum Issue 18 – Understanding National Lending Trends and Local Markets: The Role of Market Research
Publications

FIELD Forum Issue 18 – Understanding National Lending Trends and Local Markets: The Role of Market Research

If for-profit lenders succeed in taking away the microenterprise field’s lowestrisk customers, this will raise costs and loss rates, making the path toward self-sufficiency in lending even more difficult.

Providing Capital, Building Communities, Creating Impact: FY2004
Publications

Providing Capital, Building Communities, Creating Impact: FY2004

This publication, a product of the CDFI Data Project, documents the work of 517 community development finance institutions (CDFIs) investing $3.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2004, an investment linked to 28,000 jobs and 43,000 units of affordable housing.

Scaling Up, Achieving More
Publications

Scaling Up, Achieving More

Explores the various factors that affect an organization’s ability to reach scale and offers recommendations for funders interested in this issue.

Microenterprise Development Programs: The Entrepreneur Within
Publications

Microenterprise Development Programs: The Entrepreneur Within

Explores the need for programs to become more entrepreneurial in order to achieve greater sustainability and suggests ways donors can support such efforts.

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Publications

Skills to Live By: Participant Reflections on the Value of their Sectoral Training Experience

This publication shares the observations of a group of past sectoral training program participants – four years post-training – about how that experience changed them and their families and what they see as barriers to their future success.

Business Value Assessment Examples
Publications

Business Value Assessment Examples

Brief “real-life” examples that describe how workforce service partnered with a business customer to measure results.

Business Value Assessment Toolkit
Publications

Business Value Assessment Toolkit

This Handbook provides general guidance and instructions for using a set of tools to measure the value that a workforce development organization delivers to its business clients.

FIELD Forum Issue 16 – EITC and Microentrepreneurs: One Program’s Experience
Publications

FIELD Forum Issue 16 – EITC and Microentrepreneurs: One Program’s Experience

Explores how one microenterprise development organization (West Company in northern California) is helping low-income microentrepreneurs document their participation in the economy and take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

Monitoring Client Outcomes: A Report from MicroTest’s 2004 Data Collection
Publications

Monitoring Client Outcomes: A Report from MicroTest’s 2004 Data Collection

Microenterprise development is a process of supporting emerging entrepreneurs to develop and grow small businesses.

How Does Business Benefit from Sectoral Workforce Development Services?
Publications

How Does Business Benefit from Sectoral Workforce Development Services?

This issue describes the lessons learned from nine sectoral workforce development programs and their business customers as they worked with WSI to create a process for assessing the value of their services from the employers’ perspective.

Fulfilling the Promise: A Guide for Board and Staff
Publications

Fulfilling the Promise: A Guide for Board and Staff

To forge a vibrant future, the U.S. microenterprise field must move in new directions.

About the Economic Opportunities Program

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.

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More from the Economic Opportunities Program

Foundational Skills: National Survey Findings
Publications

Foundational Skills: National Survey Findings

This publication examines how fragmented skills, credentialing, and workforce data systems limit the potential of skills-based hiring and advancement, and outlines a shared vision for building the interoperable infrastructure needed to create a connected skills ecosystem that benefits workers, employers, educators, and governments.

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Podcasts Videos

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers

This conversation is part of our Opportunity in America series, where we take a look at the economy, what’s working, what’s broken, and really how we fix it to make sure that everyone can succeed in today’s economy.

Resource Roundup: Wages and Affordability
Blog Posts
Room for Growth: A Survey of Upskilling Approaches — 2026 Analysis
Publications

Room for Growth: A Survey of Upskilling Approaches — 2026 Analysis

This publication examines how fragmented skills, credentialing, and workforce data systems limit the potential of skills-based hiring and advancement, and outlines a shared vision for building the interoperable infrastructure needed to create a connected skills ecosystem that benefits workers, employers, educators, and governments.

Building Economic Security: A Book Talk with Arindrajit Dube and Carrie Joy Grimes
Podcasts Videos

Building Economic Security: A Book Talk with Arindrajit Dube and Carrie Joy Grimes

Economic security shouldn’t be a lottery. Yet for millions of working families, stagnant wages and precarious jobs collide with the daily grind of managing money on shaky ground — leaving stability feeling less like a plan and more like a gamble. Fixing that takes more than one lever. It takes structural reform and the tools people need to take control of their financial lives, working together.

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers
Publications

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers

Insights from Focus Groups with Employee Owners