ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a database that covers thirty-two independent and private think tanks that are operating in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. These thirty-two cover a wide array of research and policy analysis, ranging from the prominent and broad-based activities of the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute to the very small and specialized organizations such as the Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation. Resources for the Future and the Peterson Institute for International Economics are cogent examples of specialized and highly regarded think tanks. The formal data literally range from over $600,000 to zero. In the absence of quantitative measures of effectiveness, it is difficult to relate the compensation practices of a given think tank to those of its peers. Thus, direct lobbying is clearly not a significant activity on the part of the DC-based think tanks.
