Jonathan Williams

Executive Vice President, Policy and ALEC Chief Economist

Information

Biography

Jonathan Williams is the Chief Economist and Executive Vice President of Policy at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where he works with state policymakers, congressional leaders and members of the private sector to develop fiscal policy solutions for the states. Williams founded the ALEC Center for State Fiscal Reform in 2011 and co-authors Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer Economic State Competitiveness Index with Reagan economist Dr. Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. Prior to joining ALEC, Williams served as staff economist at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, authoring numerous tax policy studies.

Williams’ work has appeared in many publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Financial Times, Toronto Star and Investor’s Business Daily. He is a contributor for The Hill and a columnist at Tax Analysts, the leading provider of tax news and analysis for the global community. Williams also serves on the Advisory Board of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) and as an adjunct fellow at the Kansas Policy Institute. He has written for the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In addition, Williams was a contributing author of In Defense of Capitalism (Northwood University Press).

Williams has spoken to audiences across all 50 states and provided testimony for the U.S. Congress, as well as numerous state legislative bodies. His work has been featured at the federal level by The White House, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. He is a frequent guest on talk radio shows and has appeared on numerous television outlets, including the PBS NewsHour, Fox Business News and Bloomberg News. Williams was also the recipient of the prestigious Ludwig von Mises Award in Economics.

Task Force Memberships

  • Tax and Fiscal Policy - Staff
  • Authored Articles

    + All Articles by Jonathan Williams

    Authored Publications

    • Labor Reform Policy: 50 State Factsheets image

      Labor Reform Policy: 50 State Factsheets

      This publication provides a snapshot of the labor policies in each state in order to give workers, businesses, and lawmakers a resource to understand how these policies are inhibiting or protecting…

    • Other Post-Employment Benefit Liabilities, 6th Edition image

      Other Post-Employment Benefit Liabilities, 6th Edition

      Other Post-Employment Liabilities, 6th Edition measures unfunded OPEB liabilities, now totaling over $1.14 trillion, just under $3,500 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. Other post-employment benefits…

    • Essential Policy Solutions for 2024 image

      Essential Policy Solutions for 2024

      Since 1973, the American Legislative Exchange Council has been at the forefront of producing and exchanging trusted policy solutions that benefit all Americans. For 50 years and counting, ALEC has…

    • Balancing State & Local Power image

      Balancing State & Local Power

      Our Founding Fathers outlined their vision of how the government should be structured in the Federalist Papers and later enshrined it in the U.S. Constitution, hoping their design allowed each…

    • The ALEC Index of State Education Freedom: A 50-State Guide to Parental Empowerment image

      The ALEC Index of State Education Freedom: A 50-State Guide to Parental Empowerment

      For nearly 25 years, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has published the Report Card on American Education, ranking the states based on a variety of performance indicators in K-12…

    • Unaccountable and Unaffordable, 7th Edition image

      Unaccountable and Unaffordable, 7th Edition

      Unfunded state pension liabilities total $6.96 trillion or just under $21,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. As noted in this report last year, the total…

    + All Publications by Jonathan Williams