Originally Posted: June 1, 2018
The George W. Bush Institute and Southern Methodist University on Friday joined forces to launch an initiative aimed at advancing policies that promote domestic economic growth and strengthen U.S. competitiveness in the global economy.
The Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative will combine the existing Economic Growth Initiative of the Bush Institute with the public policy work of the SMU Department of Economics.
The goal is to build the initiative into a globally respected policy voice on the most pressing economic issues, Matthew Rooney, managing director of the Bush Institute, said in an interview Friday with the Dallas Business Journal.
“The mission is to give ourselves the ability in one fell swoop to broaden our program reach and broaden our ability to talk about additional topics,” Rooney said. “In the last three years, we’ve focused primarily on trade and investment. We’ve talked a lot about NAFTA and immigration. We’ve been looking for a way to talk more about domestic policy issues. The new alliance with SMU gives us the ability to do that.”
Cullum Clark, director of SMU’s economic research center, will join the Bush Institute as part of the initiative and continue to be an adjunct professor at SMU. Cullen will serve as a director.
“We’re trying to both broaden and deepen the policy effort here,” Clark said in an interview.
The Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative will be supported by the George W. Bush Presidential Center Endowment at SMU, which was established to support joint programming as well as funding from the Bush Institute. READ MORE