What is a think tank? Are they for-profit orginizations?
The main one (first?) was the Hoover Institute at Stanford.
From http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
Judging from the number of Google hits I got for “think tank”, it looks like anytime you put two or more thinkers together in a room, you can call it a think tank. As for whether they’re non-profit or not, it depends. Usually if they are, they’ll say so right up front.
RAND Institute
Prominent think tank undertakes research in various fields, including economics. With an index of economic documents.
I can’t tell whether RAND is non-profit or not.
Hudson Institute
Public policy research organization forecasts trends in government, crime and the workforce. Access publications and events lists.
Nat’l Center for Policy Analysis
Promotes private alternatives to government regulation and control. Focuses on taxes, healthcare, welfare, crime, and environmental policies.
Lists of other think tanks.
http://www.nira.go.jp/ice/tt-info/nwdtt99/
http://www.cascadepolicy.org/spn.htm
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace within Stanford University is a public policy research center devoted to advanced study of politics, economics, and political economy—both domestic and foreign—as well as international affairs. Founded in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, who later became the thirty-first president of the United States, the Institution originated as a specialized collection of documents on the causes and consequences of World War I. The collection grew rapidly and soon became one of the largest archives and most complete libraries in the world devoted to political, economic, and social change in the twentieth century. By the late 1940s, the richness of the collection had led to the recruitment of scholars to use the documents in their work. Expanding its agenda to include specific research endeavors led to a vast accumulation of knowledge, and the Hoover Institution became one of the first and most distinguished academic centers in the United States dedicated to public policy research. Today, with its world-renowned group of scholars and ongoing programs of policy-oriented research, the Hoover Institution puts its accumulated knowledge to work as a prominent contributor to the world marketplace of ideas defining a free society.
thank you, everyone