Lafayette Square Institute has released a short-form brief
In April of 2025, Lafayette Square Institute released a short-form brief, “Critical Industries and Employee Ownership: Assessing the Risks of Business Succession to U.S. National and Economic Security”
High-level takeaways:
· Business succession often results in a sale to a buyer not committed to domestic employment and production or even outright business closure.
· The “silver tsunami” of retiring baby boomers poses a risk to the U.S. industrial base, particularly in sectors designated as “critical industries” to national security.
· Evidence points to Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOPs) as a proven, bipartisan tool to mitigate these business succession risks while building generational wealth for American workers.
Policymakers have the opportunity to turn the demographic risks of business succession into a U.S. competitive advantage by accelerating the growth of employee ownership.
Lafayette Square Institute’s 535 Insights Release
In February of 2025, Lafayette Square Institute released its inaugural version of 535 Insights. 535 Insights is a new analytics series investigating economic mobility tailored to the constituencies of all 535 members of Congress. Our inaugural version of the analysis explores economic mobility, housing affordability, and employee ownership statistics broken down by state and congressional district.