The Budget Lab’s goal is to bring fresh ideas and new methods so policymakers can make better choices. To that end, we have been building tools to analyze government policies' fiscal and social impacts.

Recognizing the need for comprehensive assessment beyond financial and macroeconomic impacts, particularly in evaluating the full scope of costs and returns related to policies including the child tax credit, tax cuts, paid family leave, deficit reduction, and universal pre-K.

One example of a software tool developed by the Budget Lab is their Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Extension Simulator which allows a user to see the budgetary and distributional impact of extending or modifying each provision of the law relative to allowing their expiration.