The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College is a research organization devoted to public service, generating public policy responses to important economic problems that profoundly affect the quality of life in the United States and abroad.

An independent, non-partisan educational and research organization. Named for the philosopher and political theorist John Locke (1632-1704), the Institute ascribes to his theory that society is based on natural law and that the individual is the ultimate source of political sovereignty.