Our Work
We are committed to a vision of government and international cooperation that can shape markets for a more equitable world.
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit applied research organization founded in 2014 by Bobby Jain, JFI provides states and multilaterals the next-generation policy tools they need, the frameworks to ground them, and the technical assistance to make them work—while building the institutional and intellectual home for the new era of policymaking. Working primarily on Global South-led projects, we recognize the pressing challenge of decarbonization as a moment of opportunity for global development.
OUR METHODOLOGY
Distinctly among research organizations, JFI’s initiatives span the complete spectrum of policy development. We work on theory and analysis, building a new intellectual community as key pillars of the existing geopolitical and global economic order are reconsidered and refined. We work on policy design, crafting new policy approaches, along with the methodological backbone that systemizes and embeds them institutionally. And we work on policy practice, designing the tools — from context-specific models that build local capacity to large-scale fund structures that establish durable financial instruments — that equip governments to implement effective policies for the broader good.
Each of these efforts reinforces and informs the others, ensuring that the shift towards active fiscal, monetary, and industrial policy does not remain an abstract critique or a series of isolated experiments, but becomes a lasting new model for economic governance.
HOW WE CHOOSE OUR PROJECTS
Our multidisciplinary team, bringing together expertise in finance, economics, data science, and software development, focuses primarily on technical questions of far-reaching consequence for the green transition and just development.
We work on projects that support South-South coalitions directly addressing global inequalities and building systemic resilience. Guided by the priorities of partners in the Global South, we collaborate closely with local researchers and implementation teams.
The projects we select are geared towards building lasting capacity and institutional infrastructure, and relate to our areas of specialty in finance, capital flows, and mediating between Global North and Global South.
Find out more about working with us on our Partner With Us page.
OUR IMPACT
We define success as building permanent new institutions and social infrastructure in the public and private spheres, creating a new knowledge base around urgent social questions, providing high-impact analytical support to policymakers, and cultivating the next generation of policy thinkers.
In practice, we closely track our success in:
- Strengthening peer organizations and problem-solving for our partners
- Producing distinctive, context-specific tools that build capacity for responsive, innovative policymaking
- Creating pilots and demonstration projects that put novel ideas to real-world trial for the first time
- Achieving policy implementation that outlasts our direct involvement
- Establishing policy approaches and methods that can be replicated beyond our direct engagements
- Convening and promoting a community of political economists and policy thinkers advancing new approaches to the interconnected crises of climate, finance, and development
Featured Work
Financing the Energy Transition
Launched in fall 2024 with support from major philanthropic partners, FETI is an initiative that works with governments and investors around the globe on the technical assistance, modeling, and financial structuring needed for a just green transition.
Phenomenal World Books is a partnership between our publication and the University of Chicago Press. Starting in 2026, the series will publish books on our core themes from our network of contributors, and reissues of relevant political economy texts from the past, under the imprimatur of the largest academic press in the United States. The board for our series is Adam Tooze, Melinda Cooper, Ndongo Samba Sylla, Daniela Gabor, Mehrsa Baradaran, and Destin Jenkins.
Proxy Data from the Center for Active Stewardship
The Center for Active Stewardship (CAS), a project of the Jain Family Institute, accelerates shareholder action for the public good. CAS gives asset owners the data and tools they need to ensure their investments are managed in line with their values, and supports advocacy organizations with tools and resources to conduct research and build more effective shareholder campaigns. In 2025, CAS launched the first database of all U.S. funds’ proxy votes that is free, downloadable, and easily accessible. We have also built a comprehensive ratings system that scores thousands of asset managers and funds by their votes on climate proposals.
Brazil’s Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds
The Brazilian Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds builds pathways for increasing the capacity of publicly-held assets to fund bold new social programs. Starting in 2021, JFI SVP Paul Katz worked with a diverse array of subnational funds (from the cities of Niterói, Maricá, and Ilhabela; and the state of Espírito Santo) to create the Forum of Brazilian Sovereign Wealth Funds, which is now an associate member of the International Forum of SWFs, the industry’s major professional organization.
Partnership with the Climate Vulnerable Forum V20
We are working with the Climate Vulnerable Forum V20 and its group of ~70 finance ministries to build practical, data-driven tools to advance their sustainable development and green transition goals. Our multidisciplinary team, combining backgrounds in finance, economics, data science, and software development, conducts research, builds models, and provides technical assistance and capacity-building training, working directly with CVFV20 members to explore innovative financial architectures. These range in scale from project-level capital structuring to transnational trade, liquidity, and derisking mechanisms.
Mining Fiscal Regime Simulator
As part of its Critical Minerals Portfolio, JFI is developing tools for mineral-producing countries to design taxes, duties, royalties, and trade policies. The Mining Fiscal Regime Simulator (MiFRS) enables robust revenue forecasting, more resilient fiscal design, and more informed participation from civil society. Key partners in this work include the Intergovernmental Forum for Mining, the Natural Resource Governance Institute, and the Brazilian Subnational Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, among others.
Phenomenal World Latin America
With the support of a major philanthropic gift in 2023, Phenomenal World became an international publication, building out teams of commissioning editors and translators across Latin America. Our team now includes twelve editors based across the US, UK, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. With an audience of over 22,500 dedicated subscribers in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and average monthly readership of 45,000, we have also cross-published work in translation in China, Italy, Germany, Spain, Lebanon, and elsewhere.
Lessons from Maricá, Brazil’s Solidarity Economy
JFI partnered with political leaders and researchers in Brazil to assess a 42,000-recipient guaranteed income policy. Working with Maricá’s mayor, Fabiano Horta, formal federal senator Eduardo Suplicy, and researchers from the Universidade Federal Fluminense, JFI’s empirical team designed a study to scrutinize the unique effects of the world’s largest and richest city-based cash transfers.
Millennial Student Debt
In this long-running research series (2019-2025), JFI’s Higher Education Finance team has built a country-wide analysis and visualization of student debt and its relationship with demographics, schools, and labor market characteristics, and how these relationships have changed over the past decade. This uniquely rich and granular data project has informed Congressional committees, major media analyses, and the work of student-advocacy coalitions.
Modeling and Staffing for the Student Freedom Initiative
Robert Smith partnered with JFI’s implementation team to build the Student Freedom Initiative, which disburses funds to students at dozens of HBCUs and MSIs. With flexible income-contingent financing and student supports, this program alleviates student loan burdens, which disproportionately affect Black and minority populations. JFI created the program’s design and analytics.
Data Insights for Social & Humanitarian Action
JFI is a partner of Data Insights for Social & Humanitarian Action (DISHA), an initiative of UN Global Pulse that aims to gather and make public third-party data in service of humanitarian and development goals. A member of DISHA’s steering committee, JFI provides guidance on ethics, oversight, and applied research as part of our AI for the Public Good affiliate initiative.
CURRENT INITIATIVES
Our current projects focus on social and governmental policy, as well as market structures, here and abroad.
We build pilots, design policy, and conduct research on guaranteed income alongside international partners in government, philanthropy, and academia.
We study the effect of student debt and other means of financing higher education on educational and labor market outcomes, career success, institutional equity and segregation, and long-term financial health.
We build tools, conduct research, and develop partnerships to help transform public assets into long-term financial portfolios in service of the public interest.
Financing the Energy Transition
Our team of data analysts and energy markets experts provides international policymakers with the technical assistance, modeling, and financial structuring needed for a just green transition.
PHENOMENAL WORLD
Phenomenal World is a publication focused on political economy.
We publish rigorous and innovative writing on economics, history, finance, policy, and politics. A publication of JFI, Phenomenal World explores political economy from a range of social scientific disciplines, and work with emerging and established scholars in and outside of JFI’s projects.